Titanium
by Huinari
Summary: Barry wants to surpass his father one day. Lucas wants to prove that he's a somebody. Dawn wants to keep her home safe. They all want to be strong in the end, because being strong has many different meanings. And as they grow older and wiser and push at their limits, they'll all get stronger. Just in different ways. Platinum novelization.
1. Prologue

A.S. (After Silph) 99

November 15

Verity Lakefront

* * *

"_Barry_! Get back here!"

"NO!"

The blond boy ran as fast as he could, his feet pounding away at the slushy ground underneath with fervent terror. If he was a bit more relaxed, he might have enjoyed the opportunity he had to explore his new town, but there was a very pressing danger chasing him.

He may have had problems focusing on boring things, but that didn't mean that he would stick around to have his mom shove pills down his throat, especially when they stuck and scratched until his eyes burned and he choked –

At the next turn he stopped his train of thoughts because there was a girl on the edge of the lake, sitting with her back facing him. She was all hunched up and staring out into the lake. He couldn't see her face, but he thought she might be around his age. She didn't seem to care that she was sitting on a mound of snow.

Glancing around to make sure that his mom wasn't behind him, he snuck up to her. "Hi," he said without quite thinking it through.

The girl's reaction was perfectly justified. She was sitting, staring out at the lake near her home in what would hopefully be solitude to silently think about recent events in her life when all of a sudden, an unexpected, unfamiliar voice said 'hi' to her in a far-too chipper voice. She reacted as any normal human being would have.

Shrieking in surprise, the girl flinched forwards. It would have been fine, but her flinch had thrown her off balance and made her topple. She would have fallen into the water had Barry not swept in, grabbed her shoulders and yanked back with all of his weight. It turned out that he pulled just a bit too hard, as they both lost their balance – the second time in the span of a few moments for the girl – and fell over. "Ow!"

"Sorry," he apologized, and then saw that the girl's eyes were puffy and red, and wet. "Hey, were you crying?"

"Huh?" She rubbed at her face quickly. "Sorry," she said, sniffing.

"Hey, why are you sorry?" He laughed. "You're silly."

The girl gave him a small smile. "And you're weird."

Barry stuck his chest out. "I'm not weird!" he boasted loudly, forgetting that his mother was looking for him. "I'm AWESOME!"

The girl sniffed one last time, and then gave him a curious look. "Is that your name?" she asked, not recognizing the boy from around town.

"'Course not! My name's Barry! Barry Keizer! I just moved to Twinleaf town from Pastoria city and I'm going to be the best trainer in the world, just like my dad!"

At the mention of a father, her face fell just a bit. "I'm Dawn."

Barry wanted to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her, only she looked kind of sad so he held off a bit. Still, she was doing it wrong. When one introduced oneself, one had to say their full name and where they were from. Like him. He was Barry Damien Keizer, formerly of Pastoria, new to Twinleaf – only, he didn't like the Damien part so he left it out even if his daddy said that middle names were really important. "Dawn what?"

"What?" she repeated, confused.

Now that confused Barry. "What?"

"Wait, what?" Dawn asked in an attempt to clarify everything between the two of them because she was really confused now.

"BARRY!" His mom's voice was loud and close.

He winced. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's my mom –" The hassled woman came swooping in and gripped her runaway son's hand firmly. "She's going to make me eat pills," he finished with a sigh as he was finally caught.

"Pills?" Dawn blinked. "Are you sick?"

"I think so. The doctor said that I have a dis – a dis . . . dis . . ."

"Disorder," Barry's mom filled in. Now that she had caught up to her son (thank Azelf and Mespirit – what if he had gotten attacked or kidnapped or lost in the woods she was unfamiliar with?) she could afford to be more relaxed. "Hello there. Are you Barry's friend?"

"I guess," but Dawn kept her wide blue eyes on Barry. "If there's something wrong and the doctor says you should eat pills then you should eat pills," she told him solemnly. "Or you might die."

Barry's mother sputtered at the completely incorrect direction the conversation was turning to, but Barry himself completely panicked. "Die?! Oh no! I'm too young to die! Mom, am I gonna die?!"

"No, you're not."

But her words were ignored because Dawn was speaking again and there was something about her that made Barry focus and listen to her. "You should eat your pills," she repeated. "Because if you die, people will be sad because they'll miss you. I think I'll miss you too, even if we just met. Want to be friends?"

It occurred to Margaret Keizer that Barry had met a person just as weird, if not more as he was. The odds of meeting such a person in the same region was . . . quite small, and she supposed that Barry was lucky to have found such a person in a small town like Twinleaf just after moving in. "I think you two would be good friends," she said to try and encourage Barry. _'Never let her go, son,'_ she thought, thinking of how children with ADHD were said to have difficulties with making friends.

"Sure!" Barry slapped his hand into her offered one. "Wanna come and eat cookies at my house? My mom makes awesome snickerdoodles!"

Dawn shook her head and got to her feet, brushing off the dirt from her clothes. "I have to go now," she said. "_My_ mom might be worried about me. But I'll see you around."

Because it was getting late, they went their separate ways for the day. In the evening, Barry took his pills without any complaint for the first time since getting them, heeding what his new friend had said to him. Margaret gave up on trying to convince her son that he wouldn't die, because he took his pills willingly after that.

The next day, they discovered that they were actually neighbours when Barry looked out of his new bedroom's window and saw Dawn's curious face. He yelled, and then dashed down the stairs and out of the house at six thirty in the morning to knock on the neighboring house's doors to yell for Dawn to come out and play, waking up half the town. Barry got in trouble, but Dawn had smiled and come out to play anyways with two homemade muffins in her hands so she could share her mom's delicious baked goods.

And they stayed good friends since, finding more and more common ground between the two until they were inseparable.

* * *

A.S.99

December 9 

Jubilife City

* * *

Lucas was five when he was dressed in black and taken to Jubilife, where everyone was quiet and serious or crying; where everyone was standing outside in the street, despite the cold and despite the snow falling down and turning to black mush under their black-shoed feet.

Some important looking people, like the serious old man his dad worked for, made speeches on platforms before everyone saluted pictures of the Champion and the Elite Four. In between the speeches, more people went around through the crowd handing out white flowers. A pretty lady gave him a sad smile before handing him a white flower that he held onto tightly.

His dad told him that this was because they – the Champion and the Elite Four – were dead. Like grandma. And because they were dead, everyone was here to pay their respects.

After the speeches, the salutes and the solemn ceremony at the site of a ruined building (he had vague memories of a bright and bustling building having been in that very spot, but it was really vague) his father took him by the hand to not lose him and went up to the serious old man. He was in black as well, and not in his usual white coat.

He still looked scary, but he also looked sad. Even sadder than grandpa did when they went to visit grandma's grave.

When he saw Lucas, clinging to his dad's hand, he shed a tear.

Lucas was five when he saw Professor Rowan cry for the first time.

* * *

AN: 151st story. And to think that the story was originally only 2k+ long when I first thought of it somewhere around January (so far the prewritten part is around 180k+).

This is a story based on both my Platinum playthrough (played through specifically for the purpose of writing this) and my Pokémon headcanon. Initially I was going to write a short story that was a theory on why no one seemed to know who the Champion was until the final moment, and then it ended up spanning the entire Pokémon universe in an attempt to write a realistic story of the events.

Generic blanket disclaimer: don't own it, don't claim anything that is not mine. Credit for the image goes to Shion/Kizuro (?) or 詩音 (pixiv ID:137851), who was kind enough to give me permission to use it when I contacted him/her. I just cut out the part with the Sinnoh trio and slapped 'TITANIUM' onto it.


	2. The Beginning Trial

A.S.107

June 20th

_Today is the day I'll be entrusted with a Pokémon._

* * *

Her average waking time was seven in the morning, give or take five minutes. Today, she woke up at five thirty.

It was understandable – she was excited. Today was the day that she was going to get a Pokémon. And not just any Pokémon – a rare Pokémon from Professor Rowan himself.

The purpose wasn't to simply _give_ her a Pokémon, of course. The Pokémon Professor of Sinnoh was looking for new trainers to help with his research on Sinnoh's Pokémon. He planned on giving out Pokédexes to a few trainers to record all the information they could gather, tagging the migration of species across the region and such.

Essentially all she had to do was carry it around with her, add in comments and notes of her own and use it at her will and discretion. And that guaranteed her not only going on her journey, but also some decent ranking behind her trainer credit right from the start. A golden chance.

When Dawn and Barry's mothers had heard about this, they had jumped and gotten their children signed up. Barry and Dawn had shown just as much enthusiasm, since their mothers hadn't planned on allowing them to leave on a journey until they were both fifteen – two years later. The two of them poured everything they had into the applications, hoping that they would be chosen and allowed to leave on a journey ASAP.

Much to their surprise and excitement, they had been chosen as the 'finalists'. The email alerting them of this had also informed them that the professor would entrust them each with a rare Pokémon to test their compatibility with Pokémon.

Dawn wasn't sure if she'd be allowed to keep the Pokémon, but she did plan on treating it like a friend. Or how she would treat her own in the future – which, if she had anything to do with it, would be very soon. Hopefully that was the kind of behaviour the professor was looking for in a field assistant.

She dressed, put her hair clips on, and then went down the stairs as quietly as she could. Her mother wasn't up yet, so Dawn inhaled a bowl of cereal and leftover muffins before she stepped out of the house.

The morning air was chilly and slightly damp with the last bit of fog beginning to clear away under the June sun coming out. It was quiet, with the occasional Starly chatter breaking the silence.

And then Barry slammed his door shut. "Good morning, Dawn!" he shouted far too loudly.

Dawn hurried up to him and shushed him. "There are people sleeping," she hissed. "It's only six in the morning!"

"Five fifty-three, actually," he said, still slightly too loud. Dawn poked his chin, reminding him to lower his voice. "Fine. So, you ready?"

"Heck yeah," Dawn crossed her arms. "I should be asking that to you."

"Me? Pft," Barry made some exaggerated, arrogant hand gestures. "As if. I was born ready."

"You keep telling yourself that," Dawn grinned before her face became serious. "Did you pack your things?"

He nodded. The exact date for when their journey started hadn't been confirmed yet – they weren't even sure if they were going to get a _P__oké__dex_ yet – but the two of them had gone ahead and gotten ready in their excitement. As Barry's father always said, trainers were better over-prepared than underprepared.

"Good. Let's hope we didn't jinx ourselves."

* * *

While he was all for the idea of making education and information as widespread and available as possible, Nathaniel Rowan did not believe that every single youth and youngster should be provided with a Pokédex when they chose to be a trainer.

His reason for this surprising belief that often led him to debate fiercely for hours with Samuel Oak in Kanto was that the educational system these youths had to go through didn't fully prepare their mindsets to consider information as the valuable asset it was to interact with Pokémon.

Until something was done to make information a coveted treasure rather than an obligatory burden, his stance on the matter would not change no matter how many times Samuel tried to argue otherwise. The Pokémon Index Encyclopedia was a project born out of the tears, sweat and blood of many fine men and women, a few of whom had actually died or been severely injured while gathering the necessary data. He shuddered to see the product of such a gruelling project placed in rough and grubby hands that didn't give a whit of care, and the thought of entries either plagiarized or based on urban myths made him grimace.

The Pokédex project was still ongoing. Under his care and watch, and in the Sinnoh region, its couriers and participants would be responsible trainers.

That was part of the reason why he had explicitly wanted Twinleaf Town to be included in the pool of teenage Pokédex holders. It was a small town filled with rich people who wanted a quiet life away from the limelight. Some were retired, others went to raise their children away from tabloids and attention. Privileged, but not snobs. Educated. Well-resourced.

From Twinleaf there had been five applications sent in. One had obviously been written by someone else and two were too young. The two eligible were thirteen, a decent age, and had traits of what he was looking for.

The first was the son of the Tower Tycoon Palmer Keizer, and his very writing showed enthusiasm and a strong will. His school transcript and teacher's recommendation warned Nathaniel that the boy sometimes had trouble with paying attention, but it also showed that he could focus like nothing else when his attention was hooked, and he was definitely, strongly focused on a career path involving Pokémon, specifically the path of trainers.

The other belonged to a girl, whose application essay showed a confident girl willing and ready to face the world to prove herself. Like the former, she was also the daughter of a celebrity – Johanna Steele, legendary coordinator deemed a national treasure by the Sinnohan government for her performances. With the exception of an average score in math her grades were high, and her teacher sang praises for her in the letter attached, naming her as a hard-worker with lots of dedication and ambition.

Both had parents famous for their bonds with Pokémon, with no records on cruelty. There was a greater likelihood of the children carrying the same traits as their parents, and the same good habits. These two were ideal.

He planned on dropping by their houses to meet the parents separately, but the mothers were apparently friends with each other. They insisted that it was no bother to meet together at one household.

"Over there, professor," Lucas told him.

Nathaniel nodded and they turned. He planned to have Lucas as a part of the project as well. He was the son of one of his aides and he was intelligent, very much so. The boy was also dedicated to research, and had a genuine interest in it even at his young age – coincidentally thirteen like the other two.

Coming up to the house with the address he had been given, Nathaniel Rowan waited while Lucas rang the doorbell. Some sounds came from within before a familiar woman with a famous face framed with Western Sinnohan dark blue hair opened the door, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Professor," Johanna Steele, legendary coordinator, smiled and extended a hand to shake. "It's an honour to meet you. Please, come in."

* * *

Nathaniel James Rowan was a man of many accomplishments. Back in his twenties when he had still been an actively battling trainer he had set a record by obtaining all the badges in the Sinnoh region under two years; impressive even in modern standards, but nearly impossible back in his day when the routes weren't as clear as they were now, with Sinnoh's winters as harsh and unmerciful as they always were.

He had become the Tenth Champion when he was thirty four, resigning after two years to become a professor studying Pokémon after he realized that he was more interested in the field of research. He was one of the first people to help develop the Pokédex after Samuel Oak proposed the collectivization of all information known on Pokémon, providing critical data on evolutions. He had married Elite Four Bertha before she retired, and their union had produced a flying type expert who had gone on to become a member of the Sinnoh Elite Four herself. He had discovered the ancient power, double hit and rollout methods of evolution and aided in the research that had led to the discovery of incense breeding.

He was as tall as Dawn had imagined him to be, and quite intimidating. Nonetheless, she didn't look away when he turned his fierce eyes on her. "So you're Dawn," he said directly to her at last.

Dawn half-expected him to make some comment about how short she was, as people tended to do. Instead, he only nodded and moved his kind-of scary gaze onto Barry. He asked them both some questions about their opinion on Pokémon which they answered truthfully (and excellently), and then he nodded again. "Very well," he said after he finished the cookie her mother had offered him. "I shall entrust these Pokémon to you for three days. After that, you are to drop by my lab in Sandgem on June twenty-third. If you have managed to connect to your Pokémon, then I shall give you a Pokédex. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Barry answered enthusiastically, and Dawn echoed him.

"Hn. Dawn, here is the Pokémon you will be responsible for."

She took the Poké ball offered and gave a cursory check of the stats_. Piplup. Male. Full health._

"Based on what you've written in the applications, I would say that a Piplup would best demonstrate your capabilities as a trainer," he told her, passing her a thick booklet with information on how to properly take care of the specie. And it was true. Piplup overall were a proud, stubborn specie, a trait that did not die out through evolution. He didn't expect her to fully bond with the Pokémon, but rather earn something from the Pokémon. A bit of trust, or maybe respect.

In his experience, the ambitious went far when they had a control over their temperaments and knew how to yield instead of breaking. If she could yield, then she would be able to go far. If she could curb her patience and manage to yield, give enough to bond with a Pokémon he found to be stubborn and obstinate most times, then she would be good for the job.

Dawn smiled. "I'll do my best, sir," she said, taking the booklet. She would read it later when he was gone.

"Hn. As for you, Barry, I'll be entrusting you with a Turtwig."

The boy nearly snatched the Poké ball out of his hands, all but vibrating with glee. "_Awesome_," he sang. "Thanks, professor!"

Turtwig were constant creatures, but slow. A direct foil to the quick, impatient-looking boy. If he truly loved Pokémon as he claimed, then he would be able to ignore the difference between the two of them and forge some kind of bond. It was a test of the boy's patience, to see just how far he would be able to go when challenged.

Nathaniel handed him a booklet containing relevant information as well, drained the last of his tea and stood up. Lucas followed his example, hastily closing and fastening the briefcase with the last Pokémon inside. "If there are any troubles," he told them both, "don't feel hesitant to drop by my lab. Now that you have Pokémon with you, you should be fine, but the doors are always open."

"Thank you," the two of them chorused. "Bye, professor!"

Nodding, he left with Lucas. On the way back to the lab he gave the last of the three Pokémon to the young assistant. For Lucas, a Chimchar, playful and quick, would be ideal. The boy was a bit rigid, and needed to be more flexible. Fire was an element that would push him out of his comfort zone.

Back at Dawn's, she and Barry were releasing and meeting their Pokémon for the first time. "Hey, buddy!" Barry shouted at the Turtwig, who, though startled, seemed pleased at the enthusiasm the boy was showing.

Dawn smiled down at the blue bird. "Hi, Piplup," she said softly, sitting on the ground to get her eye level closer to his. "I'm Dawn – nice to meet you." She offered him a hand to shake.

The Piplup eyed everything – the inside of the house, the adults watching from the side, the boy nearby who happened to be excitedly shouting and twirling the Turtwig from the lab around – before he really looked at the girl. She was looking right back at him with waiting, anxious eyes. Eyes, facial expressions and body language all suggested someone easy to read and predict. She was a very open person.

He shrugged to himself. Good as any human, probably better than some, he supposed. He extended a flipper and shook her hand.

First contact had been established. Dawn smiled widely, confirming the Piplup's first reading of her – she was easy to read.

"You know," Barry said as he broke a cookie in half and offered it to his Turtwig. Dawn picked out a few of the small muffins and offered it to the Piplup, noting that he took the sour one. "Now that we've got Pokémon, there's really only one thing we have to do."

Dawn let the Poké ball roll on her knuckles. "You're on," she said, reading his mind.

The Pokémon were up for it. They ran outside and took their stances across each other in a pretend 'field'.

"Are you up for this?" he taunted, playing up the role of a cocky trainer.

"I was born ready," she retorted, matching his attitude tee for tee, tat for tat.

In unison, they struck silly and dramatic poses. "I challenge you to a battle!" they shouted together.

"Piplup!" as she called him, her mind raced with adrenaline and buzz. She tapped the Poké ball, accessing the more detailed information available to her. He knew two moves – pound and growl. Pound was a direct attack, while growl lowered attack. It was a choice between direct offense right off the bat and manipulation of factors before jumping in.

It didn't matter, not right now. They were both at base zero, starting from nothing. There was no fancy strategy she could toss around, no trap hidden in a Faberge egg concealed in a nasty surprise. Just a plain, physical fight. Piplup's speed against Turtwig's bulk, and the question was which was superior.

They wouldn't know until they fought it out. But she planned on winning. "Pound!"

Barry pointed a theatrical finger at her. "I _knew_ you'd do that!" he shouted. "Turtwig, withdraw!"

From then on it escalated (or de-escalated) into a large and rather unexcited mix of pound, tackle, growl and withdraw. It was nothing like the battles she saw on television, where there were flames and rocks bringing on great explosions onto the battleground, and certainly nothing like what she had planned for the future. It was more of a wrestling struggle between two little kids.

Nonetheless, she and Barry cheered them on like a billion Poké were at stake, because in a sense something priceless and unimaginable in value was invested in this seemingly-small battle. It was, after all, their first official battle together, out of school and simulated battles with borrowed Pokémon and testing knowledge of theory.

This was Dawn and Barry, at the very beginning.

Of course, since the Pokémon in their charge were rather inexperienced, that left them near the end of their rope pretty soon. The two Pokémon looked battered, like a single hit could knock them out easily.

The question was just who would be able to get that extra single hit before the other. And in that aspect, right now when they were around the same, Dawn had the advantage. Turtwig's bulk would be his undoing.

"Piplup, grab his head and push him aside," she ordered when Turtwig came charging.

Piplup did, and Turtwig's tackle was misdirected. His back – and more importantly, neck – was right in the range of Piplup's fins for a few precious seconds, and the water type was still capable of hitting hard. It was all they needed. "Now pound!"

That one extra attack was all that was needed to finish this. Exhausted, Turtwig fainted after being hit in the back of its head. Piplup didn't look much better, but he did flash a cheeky grin as she returned him to his Poké ball. "Nice battle," she said.

"Whew," Barry wiped off sweat from his brow as he nodded. "That was close."

Even after resting their Pokémon, it was early in the afternoon. They made their way over to the lake, intending on visiting every place that was special to them at home to remember and commemorate the occasion before they left. Dawn also had to fill Piplup's Poké ball with water, just like the booklet said she should.

"So all water types need to have some water in their balls?" Barry asked her on the way. His father had a Milotic, but he had never mentioned that.

"No, but it's recommended," Dawn said, regurgitating the information from the booklet. "They can produce their own water, but it's in case they need more than they can produce, or if the trainer needs to save the fresh water produced for his or herself."

"Is that so . . . ." Barry trailed off. "Hey, Dawn, look."

Dawn looked to where Barry nodded towards and saw an adult, looking out at the peaceful waters and seemingly talking to himself. "Is he crazy?" Dawn asked Barry, a bit worried. It wasn't exactly uncommon for fanatics to come to Lake Verity for some kind of pilgrimage, and people in Twinleaf quickly grew used to such things. It wasn't until the crazies started to rant angrily and threaten to burn everything down that people got worried, and when they were worried they either called the police or one of the residents known for strong Pokémon. Barry's family was one of the households frequently called, thanks to his dad's strong Pokémon, but Johanna had been called upon a few times herself, as her Pokémon were well-trained and skilled battlers.

Sound could be heard from his direction; the sound of a voice. ". . . time . . . space . . . ."

Their lakeside mystery man turned slightly, making it easier for the two of them to overhear his words. "Until then, stay asleep in your lake, legendary."

He walked over to them, and for a moment Dawn didn't really know what to do. Was he going to yell at them, shouting about how the gods had shown him the end of the world and they had to repent for their sins? That had happened once, and it hadn't been a fun experience.

No, and no. He didn't even notice them until he was close. "Excuse me," he said.

He wasn't exactly the raving, messy-haired kind of crazy guy, but he did look oddly out of place at Lake Verity. He had a blank face, and looked capable of kicking baby Eevee without any remorse. She half-expected him to attack her and Barry.

He didn't. Barry and Turtwig moved aside first, he passed in between them and that was it. "Who was that person?" he wondered out loud, more to himself than her. "And what was that all about?"

"He seemed interested in Mespirit," Dawn commented. Now that Scary-Eyes were out of the scene, the cold sweat that had formed down her spine, as well as her reaction felt a bit silly. Piplup sniffed and then dove into the water. She filled the Poké ball with a good deal of water, enough for her to take five baths with. Since Piplup didn't know any water type moves just yet, that should have been more than enough for now.

"Huh. Hey Dawn!"

That was his I-have-an-idea voice, the one he used whenever he came up with a plan. "What?"

He grinned at her. "Let's catch the legendary of the lake!"

Dawn made a face. The legendary of the lake, Mespirit, was revered as the goddess of emotion. There were small shrines scattered all around Lake Verity, near the winding paths in the woods of the Lakefront. Almost all of the temples in the Southwestern part of Sinnoh were dedicated to her, and at least one-third of Sinnoh's religious population (which was pretty much around one-third of Sinnoh's population, as most of Sinnoh was religious) offered prayers to her even if she wasn't their primary patron goddess. She was the one people prayed to when they were happy, when they were in love, when they were grieving and when they just felt or wanted to feel something in their hearts.

Mespirit also happened to be one of the two primary patron gods Dawn's family prayed to, and Barry knew that. He just wasn't connecting the dots or using his brains.

"I mean," he continued on, oblivious to her irritation. "The professor's goal is to have us catch Pokémon to fill out information on the Pokédex-"

Dawn hit him on his arm as hard as she could. "Ow!"

"Barry Keizer," she snapped in the most threatening tone she could muster up, "if you ever try to catch Mespirit, I will _kill_ you."

Barry wasn't religious. His father prayed to Azelf, having grown up in Pastoria, but Barry's mother was one of the rare Sinnohans that didn't particularly believe in or prayed to a god, even if she did invoke the names out of habit when she was in pain, or surprised. He had followed her in that particular aspect, despite being identical to his sire in every other way. He didn't quite see the point on relying on the gods so much, and lacked the patience to pray daily or visit temples often.

But he did have a sense of self-preservation – weak as it was – carefully nurtured and cultivated by his mother and Dawn. "Okay, okay," he mumbled, knowing when he had to cut his losses. "Sorry."

Dawn huffed slightly, but forgave him. They spent the rest of the day tossing bits of muffins at Piplup in the water, and rolling a ball to Turtwig and back before heading home when the sun began to set.

* * *

The next two days followed a pattern. Wake up, eat breakfast, spend the first half of the day running around outside before coming back for a lunch and then hanging out at home separately with their Pokémon.

Dawn learned that the Piplup she was in charge of liked to eat sour food, shower in cold water and look at pictures of Prinplup and Empoleon but disliked climbing stairs and being carried in her arms unless absolutely necessary, and above all hated to sleep with the lights on.

It wasn't that he liked to take naps – on the contrary, he slept early and woke early. But his early sleeping, as well as his policy of no lights also meant that Dawn couldn't message her friend in Johto after he deemed it bedtime. Her PC was a desktop, so she couldn't just move to a different room to use it. The option of him ignoring the light was out, since he couldn't sleep with the lights from the monitor and her mom didn't have another computer.

Dawn negotiated a half-hour deal, where she had thirty minutes to converse with her travelling trainer pen pal before he put his flipper down. The alarm, set to thirty minutes, went off and he chirped impatiently. "Alright, alright," she gave and put the PC to sleep when he began chirping impatiently from the bed of cushions she had made him. He had made it clear that he wouldn't sleep on the floor and she felt bad about shoving him into a Poké ball, since as a lab Pokémon he wouldn't get many chances to spend time outdoors. Piplup found the arrangements suitable.

Dawn climbed into her own bed after turning the lights off. "You know," she said into the darkness. "I can't believe it's been three days already."

Piplup made a sound. He didn't like sound when he was about to sleep, either. A picky sleeper, like royalty. If he had been hers, she would have nicknamed him something like –

But he wasn't hers, and she shouldn't be thinking like that. "It's been nice knowing you," she said quietly. It had been fun bonding with him. Despite his pickiness with the light when he was sleeping, the Piplup had just fit right into her life like he had always been there.

He didn't protest too much at her talking, so she continued on. "I think you'll make an awesome Empoleon one day." She had, after all, noticed the way he looked at the pictures.

The Piplup wanted to grow into a regent of brine, ice and steel, just like she did. In him she saw herself reflected, as well as the patient ambition of waiting for a right opportunity to come by. She really did hope that his dreams would come true.

In the darkness the Piplup stared at the dark ceiling. It was quiet and dark with soft pillows all around and under him, just the perfect setting for him to go to sleep in, and yet slumber evaded him for a long time.

* * *

AN: One of my biggest problems with Pt was how they essentially had Prof. Rowan - one of the sternest profs in the Pokémon universe - just give out rare Pokémon to two random, reckless kids he met while taking his morning walk. Like, no. DP made some sense, at least, but no freebie handouts.

Dawn chose Piplup because I chose Piplup - it's my favourite Sinnoh starter. I considered giving her a Chimchar for the sake of mixing it up a bit, but ended up not doing that in 'Titanium'. The Dawn in 'the road to hell was paved with good intentions', however, did start with a Chimchar, so if you want that go to that story.

Finally - me uppercasing words like 'Pokémon' and 'Piplup'. I've had people tell me that there are grammar rules, and they were nice enough to explain and give me concrit. After a lot of thought (and going over a document with 180k+words at least five times to change format back and forth) I decided to stick with just uppercasing everything. Partially due to my laziness, I admit, but also because in the games the names seem to be uppercased. Just going to go by that logic.


	3. Start My Dream

A.S.107

June 23rd

_Today, the first step of my dream might come true._

* * *

And then she was awake to sunlight streaming in through her window. It was morning, time for her to visit Professor Rowan's lab. After a breakfast where sour food made up the majority, Dawn and Piplup headed out.

Barry would have probably raced the entire way to Sandgem town in his hurry. Dawn and Piplup set off down Route 201 at their own pace, enjoying what was probably their last hours together. Along the way, a few wild Starly tried to attack them, but each time Piplup was able to ward them off with some pounding. Maybe it was the few battles he'd had since temporarily coming into her hands, but he was certainly stronger.

"Nice one," a guy on the route applauded when Piplup took down his fourth Starly with ease. "Let me guess – you're starting out on your journey?"

Dawn nodded. Technically, she had to return home after getting the Pokédex from Professor Rowan so she and her mom could pick out a starter for her, but in a way she was all ready to go, bags packed and license shiny.

He smiled in a friendly way. "Congratulations. Tell you what – I'm a clerk at the Sandgem Mart, and I'm handing out potions to advertise our goods to trainers. Would you like one?"

"Are they free?" Dawn asked to be sure. She didn't want any strings attached to gifts.

He laughed. "Of course! Most Marts will give you a free item if you go there for the first time as a trainer."

"Then yes, please."

It was a potion. A plain, basic potion, nothing special or fancy. Nonetheless, it was nice, getting free things on her journey. Her mom had promised that she would help out if Dawn was ever in financial trouble, but other than that she was supposed to be on her own. Lyra, if she remembered correctly, had been a bit creeped out because a lot of 'old men' had given her things in the beginning of her journey way back in March, but had admitted that the freebies had been helpful so far. "Thanks!"

"No problem! Drop by the store if you ever need something!"

Promising that she would, Dawn continued on with Piplup until the tall grass began to recede and foot-worn ground showed through.

At the entrance to the town, she recognized the professor's assistant from yesterday. The boy named Lucas who now had a Pokémon with him as well, a red monkey with fire for a tail. A Chimchar – one of the three primary stages of Sinnoh's 'Big Three', of which Piplup and Turtwig were also a part of.

Apparently he recognized her too, because he came up to her, Chimchar sitting on his shoulder. "Hi," he said with a smile, much less awkward than before. "You must be Dawn."

"Hi." She extended a hand, trying to be friendly. "Lucas, right?"

He shook her hand. "Yeah. I've been waiting for you. Please just follow me this way – the professor's been waiting for you."

"Really?" Her stomach contracted – and it wasn't the several homemade muffins she had gorged on this morning, although they were swirling uncomfortably at the news now. Had he been waiting long for her? She wasn't late, was she? "Where?" she asked reluctantly, pushing down the nerve-wracking 'oh shit' feeling.

He pointed to the largest and shiniest building around. It looked smart. Every beam and brick practically _radiated_ smartness. "That's the lab," he explained.

"Oh, okay." Not having anything else to say, the two of them began to step towards the double sliding doors when it slid open on its own. Barry came running out, narrowly missing hitting the metal. Dawn and Lucas weren't as lucky as the metal was, as he managed to run into both of them. "Ow!"

"Ow! Hey!"

So Barry was done with . . . whatever the professor had wanted to do. Now he stood, brushing dust off his palms, and made a face. "I'm not sure if he's scary, or just totally out there," he said to her, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Lucas bristled, losing some of his friendliness at the unintended insult towards the Professor, but before he could really lose his friendly face Barry waved with a huge smile. "Well, you're in for a real big surprise, but I won't ruin it for you, so see ya!"

And then Barry dashed off to the direction of Twinleaf before she could get a word in edgewise. Lucas took a deep breath and returned to his normal self. "Your friend's always in a hurry, isn't he?" he asked, grinning slightly. "Alright, let's go in.

It was a sterile environment obviously meant for research and, to a lesser degree, education. There were aides in white coats writing and looking into microscopes, and shelves filled with books. Lucas ignored them all and just continued on walking in deeper though, so she hurried after him with Piplup at her feet. He refused to be carried in her arms and she would respect that.

The professor himself was also in a white lab coat now, having traded his trench coat for the indoor lab. He had been reading a report at his desk in deep thought, but looked up when they came closer. "Hello, Dawn." He nodded to her. "Excellent timing. Come, sit." He gestured at the seat across his desk.

She relaxed a bit at that and did as she was told. So she wasn't late. Good.

Professor Rowan extended a hand to her, palm up. It was a hard, calloused hand that had seen many things, with the scars to prove the tales it told. "May I?"

Dawn handed the ball back with one last look towards Piplup. She would never forget him, she knew.

Instead of returning him, though, the professor merely checked some stats and then looked at Piplup, observing him for qualities only visible to him. The Poké ball was simply rolled around in his hands, toyed with while the professor thought. "Hn," he said at last. "It seems that you've bonded with this Pokémon."

Hadn't that been the purpose of this all? She asked him in more polite terms.

"Past my expectations," he clarified. "Very well. You may keep him."

A second later, when what he had said registered, Dawn jerked, nearly falling out of her seat. That, she hadn't expected. Big Three Pokémon in early stages were popular as starters, more so after the programs implemented by governments to promote their use, and she had always considered getting a water type for her first Pokémon, but she hadn't imagined the Piplup joining her. Truthfully, she hadn't dared. "Really?!"

Professor Rowan glanced down at the Piplup. Amazement on his face, as well as clear joy. He was making the right choice by giving her the Piplup. "Positive," he replied. "Consider him a gift from me, with best wishes for your journey. Would you like to give him a nickname?"

"Yes! But, um." She grinned sheepishly. "How do I make it official?"

He tapped at the Poké ball and pulled up something. "Normally, when you catch a Pokémon, the option for nicknames will automatically be offered," he explained, passing the sphere back to her with the keyboard waiting. Her Poké ball. Her Pokémon. "Once keyed in, the algorithms will lock the name permanently unless taken to an official name rater. For safety and security purposes, of course. What will you be naming this one?"

Dawn looked at Piplup. He was cute, she agreed, but there was more to him than that. There was a soul that wanted to become grand and great, and she knew there was ambition in the little guy, ambition in a heart far surpassing his current small shell. She had seen it in the battle between him and Barry's Turtwig, and recognized the fellow spark of determination to be the best. He was, like she had thought before, a mirror of her.

This one was born to be a king of the oceans, just like how many Sinnohan Iron Queens of the past were said to have used Empoleon as their right-hand Pokémon. And now he was her starter.

He needed a fitting name.

"Neptune," she said.

Piplup looked away, but he was obviously pleased.

Professor Rowan nodded his approval. "A fine name," he said as she keyed it into the ball. "And here is your Pokédex. I took the liberty of synchronizing it to your trainer account and ID already."

"Thank you," Dawn took the offered device. It was shiny like only new things could be, made out of some kind of light but firm metal painted red and black. The clamshell design of the Pokédex kept itself closed with some sort of magnetism, but opened easily with slight force.

"You will still have to register your fingerprints and activate the voice recognition, but otherwise, everything is in order." The professor took a sip from a travel mug on the desk, and then handed her a package. "This is the charger, as well as a portable electricity converter. It also contains five Poké balls and a TM for the move Return."

At her surprised look his beard quivered in amusement. "In your application you mentioned that you planned on becoming the Champion?"

She gave him a half-smile. Champion. The title's glory was amongst the veiled mystique of myths now, when the identity of the strongest person in the region was kept a secret.

It used to be otherwise. Before, the reigning Champion was the one who would make the decisions and call the big shots with most of the League affairs, as well as a lot of other things. The Champion was the unofficial leader of the people, the face of the region, the symbol of power. The Champion was the one revered. The Champion was the one who ruled, just like the ancient Iron Queens had in the past before the tradition was ended abruptly.

The powers of a Champion had slipped considerably in contemporary history, even before 11/9, but the significance of the position hadn't changed. A Champion, former or reigning, was still a one-man army that was easily a region's most valuable asset.

In A.S.99, the year Dawn had turned five, the world had been nearing the end of a war on a scale that had never been seen before. Orre's former government and the Orange Islands had declared war against Kanto two years prior, and the former Commonwealth pledged their alliance to Kanto in a show of gracious forgiveness.

Sinnoh had promised to help as well, partly because the region had been a part of the Commonwealth once, and partly because Orre's derisive attitude towards the Pokémon gods had always been a source of friction between Sinnoh and the odd region. The reigning Champion at the time, Victor Aguilera, Sinnoh's Seventeenth and reigning Champion, had pledged the services of seven hundred thousand League-related men and women, including infantry, engineers, naval officers, pilots and doctors.

Kanto thought it was too little, Sinnoh thought it was too much and old historical hatreds were sparked up. Victor, despite his bright smile and friendly attitude, wasn't popular for his choice, especially when the lack of volunteers led him to argue for conscription.

His choice started protests all across Sinnoh, but Stark Island – well-known by its nickname 'Battle Zone' – was particularly furious. Never having been close to mainland Sinnoh, its people resented the idea of having to fight a war they had no connection to. Combined with Victor being a devout follower of Palkia and Manaphy, and the Heatran supporters were incensed. They saw the residents of Stark Island being discriminated against, ignored and put down because they were the minority, because they were not a part of mainland Sinnoh – claims that may not have been far from the truth, considering the attitudes towards the general area of the island at the time.

From the sparks of conflict and tension, a group dubbing themselves Inferno rose. It was a group formed out of radical extremists who followed the words of Heatran to the very scratches made in the igneous stone plates from the time when Iron Queens ruled Sinnoh. They saw it as their duty to cleanse the region of the disgrace that was the Champion, just as Heatran had cleansed sins with her flames.

When Champion Victor and the Elite Four at the time – Apollo Lloyd, Will Gibson, Lark Rowan and Drina Cho – were visiting the Global Trade Station in Jubilife, members of Inferno struck. Ten men took in what was later reported to be fifty-four Graveller and six Golem into the building, and had them use explosion simultaneously. Most of the explosion had been focused around the central area where the Champion and the Elite Four were, but the collapsing building, the fire and the smoke had killed a thousand, forty-seven more with later injuries.

Five of the strongest trainers in the Sinnoh region, killed, just like that. Jubilife's darkest day, and arguably Sinnoh's as well.

As the region, suddenly thrown into chaos, struggled to regain footing in anarchic times, other extreme opposition groups began to gain their courage not only in Sinnoh, but in other regions. After Hoenn's regional professor was assassinated and a third attempt was made on his life, Hoenn's Ninth Champion Steven Stone resigned.

Impacts and repercussions from the bombing were definitely felt all over the world. Wallace, the Tenth Champion of Hoenn, had kept to a passive policy, remaining neutral in a region that was historically volatile due to religious conflicts. Every region's budget on League security doubled, at the very least. Lance, Champion of Johto, had been held back from engaging with Team Rocket a few years back when the organization had been running rampant in Kanto and Johto because Kanto's position had been vacant and Johto hadn't wanted to risk losing their own Champion.

And Sinnoh, as the only region that didn't hold League Tournaments every certain number of years to choose a Champion never revealed just who had taken over as Champion after Victor's death, nor the new Elite Four.

Essentially, they hid the Champion, the strongest piece on the board, the ace in the hole, the one-person army out of public sight.

Dawn didn't like that. Out of sight, out of mind. All the Champions had been loved – even Victor, whose popularity had been at an all-time low right before his assassination, had been forgiven and made a martyr, a beloved friend and a saint after his death. It was just what the position brought. The Champion's image was glorified; idolized; _worshipped_. When no one knew who the Champion was, there was no one to look to. No obstacle to overcome, no final frontier to confront.

There was no face to the person who was supposedly the strongest one within the region. It was a loss of connection between power and the rest of society.

But more than that, it was humiliating. The strong didn't have to hide. In fact, they _should not_ have had to hide. That only meant that Inferno – the bullies – won. Yes, Inferno had been psychically tracked and systematically taken down with a fervour that matched their devotion, but their legacy lived on as a reminder every day when Sinnoh's history classes could only name seventeen champions, when trainers had no role model that doubled as the great mountain to conquer, when the face of the region was a blank.

She planned on filling that blank with her face. She planned on changing everything. She planned on becoming Champion.

"I do," she replied.

The former Champion didn't smirk in amusement at the bold words – coincidentally, words he had heard from the boy before her. He didn't make sarcastic remarks, didn't give condescending advice and didn't talk about 'back in his day' when 'he was Champion'. Nathaniel Rowan, Tenth Champion of Sinnoh, only nodded in his stoic way. "Then perhaps it will help."

"Thank you." And she really was grateful. If she could – without appearing as a total weirdo or draining her bank account considerably – she would have showered him in a ton of Gracidea flowers.

Professor Rowan extended a hand. She took and shook it as firmly as she could. "Then good luck," he said. "Your journey starts now."

* * *

Technically, her journey didn't start the moment Professor Rowan shook her hand and declared the beginning. First she had to head back home with her new Pokémon – _her_ Pokémon – and let her mom know.

After being told, her mom smiled and nodded. Maybe it had only been a surprise to Dawn that the Pokémon given to test them would end up being their starters.

Deciding she was over-thinking it, she went upstairs to grab her things. All her bags were packed, so it was only a matter of changing out of the casual clothes she was wearing into more travel-suited attire. Her waterproof coat, approved of heartily by Uncle Palmer, was already packed in her bag, and it wasn't needed at the moment under the June sun, but she pulled on the League hat and a thin scarf. Then she pulled it off, stared at her reflection for a few seconds, debating the need to wear the tuque. Like all Leagues, the Sinnoh League gave out hats to trainers with the Poké ball logos, but most Sinnohan hats focused on keeping heat rather than offering protection from the sun due to climate and weather differences.

And as enthusiastic as she was to be heading out on her journey . . .

. . . what person wore a _tuque_ in the middle of June, journey or otherwise?

It wasn't like she lived in Snowpoint, the city of eternal snow or anything. Dawn stuffed the tuque into her bag and settled for straightening out the stray strands of hair and her favourite yellow hair clips disturbed by the knit hat being pulled on and off her head. Then, she grabbed her bag and headed down after taking a final sweeping look at her room.

Her mom was already pulling out her favourite foods and having Jackie set the table. Neptune eyed the spicy stew with vegetables and Swinub meat, and decided that he'd much prefer the sour Pokémon food.

Dawn inhaled the food, and Neptune mimicked her. "Careful not to choke," Johanna laughed when he did, and handed him some water. Juni – or Jumpy, as Dawn always called her – the Kanghaskan brought another plate of food, this one for her mother, as well as a muffin tin full of freshly baked goods. Behind her, Jackie followed with the pitcher of mixed berry juice.

Johanna sat down in her seat and began to eat. "I have to say, I kind of envy you, kiddo. Wish I could go instead."

"You could," she suggested, taking a large bite of the stew, savouring the meat and the vegetable. "I'm sure Professor Rowan would like the help," she added, voice muffled by the food in her cheeks.

Her mom laughed. "I'm joking, sweetie. You have fun! Just call, okay? And don't get into trouble."

"I smell muffins," Barry's mom said as she walked in. It didn't bother anyone that there was no knocking, no 'may I come in'. They were practically extended family, anyways. "Oh, and by the way, has Barry dropped by to bum some food off of you?"

"Hm? Oh, Barry? He's not here. Care for a pecha berry muffin?" Jackie picked up the plate and held it out towards their neighbour.

"I'd love one," Aunt Margie said as she plucked one from the Medicham's offering fingers. "But Barry! He just barges in, shouts that he's going on an adventure and runs out before I can get a word in. He's Palmer's son," she added. Whenever Barry did something 'good', Margaret claimed him as her son, but whenever he decided to be reckless he instantly became 'Palmer's son'. Barry found it hilarious rather than insulting that he was passed between his parents depending on what he did, and so did Dawn.

Dawn paused in her chewing, but continued on eventually. It figured that Barry would leave after being evaluated by Professor Rowan as soon as he could. They were both confident about being allowed to go just as their mothers were, but unlike Dawn and Barry the moms wished that the unavoidable could be avoided for just a bit longer. The blonde woman's face grew a little wistful. "I've been meaning to give him something . . . ."

Dawn swallowed. "I'll take it." Knowing Barry, he wouldn't come back home unless he had earned at least one badge. It would be easier and faster for her to catch up to him and then deliver the package.

"Thank you, Dawn." Barry's mom looked a bit more relieved now.

And so, Dawn shoved the additional weight of a thin package into her bag. It was wrapped, but it was also thin and wide. Like a book, maybe. Not worth accessing storage for.

"Well, I should get going too." She stood up and shouldered her bag. After a thought, Dawn took a muffin – oran berry – and chewed before she stood up and packed some to take on her journey. She stuffed them into the physical compartment of her bag, not accessing the item storage technology that allowed her to carry most of her travel gear in the same fashion as a Poké ball could carry a giant Wailord. She'd probably end up eating them all by the time they got to Sandgem.

Then, she was ready to go. "Bye, mom." She let herself get engulfed in a hug and photographed. She had to pull on her hat for the sake of the League symbol being in the picture, and then fix her stray strands and hair clips again, but it was fine. "I promise I'll call every day."

The coordinator sniffed, eyes glittering with proud tears. "Just remember to drop in every now and then – and if you don't come home for winter I'll burn your old journals instead of a Yule log."

Snickering slightly, Dawn adjusted the straps of her bag one final time and skipped out of the door after another large hug.

Johanna shook her head, putting the muffins aside so they would cool down. "She thinks I'm joking," she said to Margaret, who laughed breathlessly. The two women shuffled a bit, suddenly far too aware that their children were gone because they had grown up.

It was a hollow moment for them both.

* * *

Ever since she was five years old, she had kept some sort of a journal. In her earlier years it had been a diary with all the pink fluff and childish words that made her either cringe or laugh while reading through careful cursive, but had progressively evolved into a log before turning into a report of a sort on everything and anything important that happened, as well as an extensive analysis of her day-to-day life and a planner for her plans, both present and future ones.

As fate would have it, she had filled the last page of her previous journal up yesterday, writing about Piplup's – Neptune's – behaviour. Dawn dropped by the Sandgem Mart, and picked up a spiral-bound notebook with a hard and plain cover. In addition to that, she spent a quarter of the money she had deposited into her trainer debit card buying potions, antidotes and paralyze heals. With no badges to her name, she couldn't yet buy more advanced Pokémon-related merchandise, but even basic medicine was important, and the professor had been generous enough to give her Poké balls. They wouldn't be enough, but it did allow her to use the money for something else.

And speaking of Poké balls . . . .

According to her Pokédex, which helped her search for a lot of information, the Pokémon in this general area were fairly common ones, seen all through the Sinnoh region. Lots of trainers used them in the basic and first stages of evolution because they were easy to catch, and easy to train. With the exception of a water type, any of them would have been a helpful member on her team. Maybe not her _main_ team, but helpful now for sure.

"Ready?" Dawn said to Neptune before she stepped into the grass of Route 202, entering what was marked as wild territory, her Piplup keeping an eye out.

In the middle of the route, the grass in front of them rustled. Dawn stopped, and Neptune followed her example. The two of them watched as a blue and black-furred Pokémon with bits of gold burst through and skidded to a stop in front of them.

A Shinx. Common enough in the lower and middle western parts of the Sinnoh region, but they evolved into Luxio, then Luxray – powerful Pokémon. And they were electric types, too.

Their commonness would mean that she would get a chance to catch one later in her journey, but the Pokémon in Twinleaf's general area were weaker and younger, and therefore easier to catch, train and teach. Also, if the Shinx was weaker, then it would be less of a threat to her directly.

Yes, she wanted one. And yes, she wanted to catch the one in front of her. Dawn liked the way the Shinx stood, even if she was intimidated by the stance and the glare being shot her way. She guessed it to be the Shinx's ability that was causing a surge of approval for flight rather than fight.

But flight wasn't an option. "Go, Neptune," Dawn ordered, and it was the first time they were fighting another Pokémon with his name.

Neptune ran forwards, ignoring the intimidate, and began to pound away at the Shinx. It wasn't a ham-fisted punch that could tear through concrete, but it was still an attack, and the Shinx didn't appreciate being pounded on the head over and over again even if it was weakened. It threw its body against Neptune, trying to shove him away to gain some room.

That would have been her disadvantage in a normal battle. Not here. Neptune allowed that to happen – and when the Shinx drew back in surprise at the lack of resistance, she threw the ball she had been holding in her hands. The sphere opened and absorbed the Shinx, then closed and fell to the ground where it began to rock back and forth as the chemicals within fought to tame the creature inside. Neptune backed up slightly just as the Poké ball shook one last time and let out a ding of confirmation.

Dawn checked on its stats. Female, low on health with the ability 'intimidate'. No rabies or other troublesome diseases.

She let Shinx out. The chemicals inside the ball had done their job and the Shinx was calmed, more likely to be accepting. Dawn reached out slowly, hand constantly in Shinx's view – she had been wild until half a minute ago, after all, and it was better safe than sorry. Neptune chirped a few things that made the Shinx relax and allowed her to give her a pet, even if she tensed up at her touch and kept squirming to see her hand.

"You're a fierce girl, aren't you?" Dawn asked the Shinx. Another thing about Shinx – they were naturally social creatures. While Luxio and Luxray tended to discriminate and care only for their own unless otherwise brought up, Shinx could connect well to anyone once they were past the initial attack mode.

That was partly why she wanted a Shinx, rather than a Starly or a Bidoof. The mascot of her school in Twinleaf had been a Shinx wearing an everstone collar. She'd done a project on them once; she had more interest in them than the other indigenous species around the Lake Verity area.

Barry had actually gotten interested in that project. Having picked Starly, he declared that he would make a model demonstrating the traits of the family, and then had put more work than she had ever seen him put into anything to the mobile that now hung in the back of the Science classroom.

If he remembered that project, then he either was planning on catching, or had already caught a Starly.

Dawn offered an oran berry muffin, going with the safely bland flavour bread. After she found out just what kinds of food the Shinx liked, she would buy her something, but until then she'd stick to the safe side.

And, speaking of the Shinx . . . . "I'll name you Sekhmet," Dawn said. "Now let's get you healed up."

When she reached out to stroke her slowly, Sekhmet tensed again. Neptune chirped a warning that had her lowering her hackles, but she was still tense as she let Dawn run light fingers through the fur on her head.

* * *

After teaching Sekhmet the orders and names for different moves – not a hard task, seeing as she had only fully mastered tackle – they went to test out battles north of Sandgem, because the Pokémon on this route were pretty weak overall.

Fighting the wild Pokémon, Dawn found that while Sekhmet could wear most of them down with tackle, sometimes she had to switch in for the stronger Neptune, who managed to finish off whatever was left. When things got too much they all ran back to the Pokémon Center in Sandgem and got themselves healed, enjoying the absence of a line-up. After every healing, Dawn took the chance to pet Sekhmet. She demonstrated with Neptune first, and the Piplup showed signs of genuinely enjoying the treatment. He still had to warn her to not bite or attack Dawn, though.

So far, Neptune was ahead of Sekhmet, but the Shinx was strong. Far stronger than the other Shinx on the route, if the way she knocked them out was any indicator for her level of power.

She would go far. Again, catching her had been an excellent choice.

They were now wandering down Route 202, further than they had before. "Hey you!"

She looked up at a youngster who emerged from between the trees. "Hey back," she said to him.

"Hey back back," he countered, but continued on before she could counter his counter. "You're a trainer, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm a trainer, too! Let's battle!"

It was rather sudden, but Dawn motioned Sekhmet up. "You're on."

The other boy sent out a Starly, who squawked when it laid its eyes on a snarling Sekhmet. "Tackle," she commanded.

"Hawkeye, you too!"

It really did look like she had an advantage over him. Starly wasn't able to attack as efficiently as it could have due to Sekhmet's intimidate, and at this rate they could wear him down faster than he could.

"Don't give up! Quick attack!"

The starly made a few motions in the air, each getting faster, until all of a sudden there was a brownish blur smashing directly into Sekhmet's side. Her Shinx flew, and hit a tree.

"Mespirit!" Dawn's hands flew to her mouth. Sekhmet had just been healed and at the top of her health at the beginning of the battle, but what if she had broken her spine?

"Holy -" the other guy muttered as she ran towards her Shinx, praying to Mespirit for her to be alright.

Sekhmet was unconscious – not seriously injured, as far as she could tell. Dawn quickly returned her, and was relieved to see that the Poké ball didn't report anything wrong with her other than her unconscious state. "Neptune, revenge kill!"

"Hey now," said the youngster nervously, seeing the cold look on Neptune's face. Such an intimidating look was a shame on a Pokémon as cute as a Piplup – it deserved to grace the countenance of a cold-blooded killer. "Let's not do anything rash here."

"It's an expression," she huffed in mild annoyance at him, partly for Sekhmet's KO'd state and partly for him ruining her drama. "He's not going to actually kill your Starly. Neptune, pound the bird!"

The Starly tried to fight back. It really did. It used growl to soften impact and put in a few tackles of its own, but it was no match for Neptune. After winning, he let out a crow and nearly choked as bubbles trickled out of his beak. Her Pokédex and Poké ball, when checked, told her that Neptune had learned a new move. "Sweet!" she said as she collected her winnings from the other guy. "Okay see you bye!"

Then she hightailed it back to the center in Sandgem, where there were only a few lounging trainers and an idle nurse that could immediately look to Sekhmet.

After Sekhmet was healed, she insisted on walking ahead of them. It looked like she wasn't happy that Neptune had gotten even stronger than before; more so because he had gotten stronger after taking out the opponent she had fallen to. The next wild Pokémon they ran into – a wild Shinx – she glared at it so hard it winced and got knocked out easily. According to her Pokédex and the data on the ball, Sekhmet had learned leer. It looked more like glaring daggers to Dawn.

The wild Shinx they ran into after that nearly burst out into tears and almost seemed happy when Sekhmet knocked it out.

"You're doing great," Dawn told her, because she was. It looked like she had calmed down, too.

And then they ran into a wild Starly.

It might have been funny on a comedy show or maybe a cartoon video online. The scene – had it been fiction produced for giggles – would have been titled something like 'Crazy Shinx' or 'Electric Type goes Wild Charging'. It was not funny in real life as Sekhmet literally got into rage mode and nearly ripped the innocent bird apart.

The growl the Starly tried to use didn't seem to placate her at all, and Dawn had to recall her to make her stop. Neptune put the poor Starly out of miserable consciousness with a neat bubble – his new move – and they hurried along, trying to get Sekhmet out of the 'anger zone'.

"It looks like Sekhmet has a grudge against Starly in general now," she said when they were out of the tall grass and her second Pokémon was walking out with them again. Dawn made a mental note to record this grudge-holding behaviour and look up other cases to compare them. She hadn't run into that kind of behaviour data when she had done the school project.

Neptune chirped in agreement.

This, though, also meant that she couldn't catch a Starly for the time being and expect to be able to use it on her team. A shame, since Staraptor were brilliant, brave birds.

With a weakness to electric attacks. She supposed she had the better end of the stick with a potentially powerful future Luxray in hand that could rip apart any member of the Starly family.

Still, it wouldn't do to have a strong Pokémon with no control.

Sekhmet twisted to see just what her hand was going to do when Dawn reached out again, but let the girl pet her without a warning from Neptune this time.

That was a pretty good landmark. Dawn took a picture of her two Pokémon, and sent it to Lyra with a message – 'started my journey!' – attached.

Come to think of it, her friend in Johto had caught an electric type as her first capture as well . . . .

* * *

Barry ran all the way to Jubilife, laughing. Champ, unlike the story where the Turtwig was slow, kept up with him easily, and didn't even look particularly out of breath when he finally stopped. "You're really tough, aren't you buddy?" Barry asked, crouching down to pat him on his head. The grass type seemed to enjoy it when he gently scratched the area around the single twig on the top of his skull. "Yeah, you're going to be a wall impossible to pass by when you grow up."

Champ tipped his head. "Like a tank," Barry continued on, mad-libbing and filling in Champ's words for him. "And you're strong, too, so you'll take any hit and them hit them back harder. So when we're champions, we'll just blow everyone out of the water."

The grass type gave it some thought before lumbering away from the city and towards the grass. "Why?" he asked. Champ made a few gestures with his head. "You want . . . food? No? Another teammate?"

Champ nodded.

Well, as awesome as it would have been to become Champion of Sinnoh with only one Pokémon – or even better, defeat his dad with only Champ at his side – he guessed that his starter had a point. "You've got a good point there," he said. "But first, let me go and buy some Poké balls. Then we'll go and see if anyone wants to join us. Sound good to you?"

It did.

So Barry ran and bought a few spheres – five from the professor plus the first two he bought himself made seven, and seven was a lucky number – and then they spent the rest of the day searching for a teammate worthy enough to join them. Wild Pokémon shied away from their combined awesomeness (and Champ tackling them) until they ran into a large Starly, much larger than the others of its specie they'd seen so far. Just one look at its determined, sharp eyes and both Barry and Champ could tell that this one was a fighter.

Besides, he knew that members of the Starly family were some of the best birds around.

"Hey you!" he shouted at the bird. The Starly, rather than flying away in a start, only stared back in a challenge. "Join us!"

The Starly eyed them a bit more before fluttering down, facing Champ. The grass turtle grinned and stepped forwards, ready to fight.

Barry readied one of the empty Poké balls as Champ began to rush forwards.

* * *

AN: Barry - some of you may be wondering why he isn't going around fining everyone. Part of that's due to me finding Pearl from Pokémon Adventures so awesome. He only threatened to fine Platinum when she was on the verge of giving up, and he looked like the boss he is. I don't want such an awesome motivational line to be made into a joke, so I'm 'saving' it for those kinds of situations.

And yes, some of the sequence of events have changed, for the sake of making it flow a little better. There will be more changes in the future, as a heads up.

The references to Lyra are going to be a story on its own. It's not published yet (not finished writing) and won't be for a while. I hope to get it, or some other novelization up before Titanium's finished, but it's set around the same TF canon as Titanium, and in the same universe.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and added to favourites.


	4. Crossroad of Time

A.S.107

June 24th

_I got a free watch today. Tomorrow, I'll visit the memorial._

* * *

The best way to get over anger was to confront it and let all the steam out. Or so Dawn believed, because that method had worked for her after visiting the dojo about a hundred times to break that one stubborn board with her bare fist back in grade two when she had been taking martial arts.

Therefore, in order for Sekhmet to get over her anger with Starly in general, she'd have to simply find some more, win against them and let the grudge go. After, of course, Dawn gave her a lecture on how she had to curb her viciousness and not go psycho on every Starly because that might cause some serious trouble, but the lecture wouldn't be enough to let out all the frustrations.

The problem was, they didn't run into another Starly in the wild as they wandered around in the wild area around Sandgem for hours. Bidoof? Sure. Shinx? Absolutely – the males, especially, were razed to the ground at Sekhmet's mighty and terrifying leer as their rivalry sealed their own doom. And as the sun began to set, the Kricketot began to regret coming out as they were met and were defeated by a very frustrated Shinx.

But no Starly, not a single one. And without any of the other birds around Sekhmet grew moodier. She began lashing out at all the other wild Pokémon they ran into, diving in recklessly while Dawn tried to give commands. Neptune found this all rather funny and so wasn't much of a help in calming her down.

She contemplated throwing them all into the beach south of Sandgem, but that was opposite of the direction she wanted to go to. Not that she would allow herself to get to Jubilife without first getting her Pokémon under some semblance of order and control, but retracing steps and wasting her time to head all the way to the other side of Sandgem for the sake of visiting the beach seemed like a waste of time.

Especially if it was to throw her Pokémon into the ocean. Not when she'd worked so hard to finally get them.

In the last battle with another wild Shinx, Sekhmet was so enraged that she kept on missing her attacks while the other Shinx landed its own attacks with precise, careful hits. Eventually, Sekhmet fainted. Neptune finished the other Shinx off, and made sure she was safe while running back to Sandgem.

After being healed back from fainting for the second time that day, Sekhmet was a lot calmer. Perhaps she had realized that it wasn't quite right or nice to lash out at an entire species of – very common and numerous, might she add – Pokémon just because of a grudge against one member. Or perhaps she didn't want to revenge kill all of her own species.

Either way, she was calm now. And calm meant that she could fight without being volatile. Dawn had a talk with her that Neptune occasionally interjected comments into, and Sekhmet remained calm. They managed to get down one-third of Route 202, challenge and win against a female trainer before night fully fell.

While it was June and therefore warm enough to sleep outside with a sleeping bag, the thought of camping just on the borders of a town seemed rather ridiculous.

Also, while she was no stranger to 'roughing' it, thanks to being dragged along on Barry and Palmer and frequent camping trips, she wasn't a fan of outdoor sleeping. When she could, she would take the Pokémon Center's services.

"I'm not camping outside," Dawn said flatly, and her two Pokémon didn't disagree, so the three of them trudged through the darkness back to Sandgem where the nurse now knew them by sight.

She probably could have gone back to Twinleaf. It would have been a lot more comfortable there, sleeping in her own bed and all. But if she did, Dawn thought that the chances of her actually leaving might wither away as she made no progress at all. If she was doing this, she was going to do this properly.

"One badge," Dawn said to herself, making a promise. "At least get one badge before I visit home again."

Neptune poked at her leg with his flipper. Dawn guessed that he was telling her to sleep and stop keeping him awake. She turned the lights off and crawled into the thin sheets spread on the hard bed. It made her long for her warm home and soft bed, but she fell asleep soon enough, with Neptune and Sekhmet curling up against her for warmth.

* * *

Starting out early in the morning after an extra-long breakfast where she figured out how to get Pokémon to order things they were partial to, they got through Route 202 – with only one trainer challenging them – and set foot in Jubilife before noon. And somehow, in the biggest city in Sinnoh, they managed to run into a person they knew.

"Hey, Lucas," she waved when she saw the familiar bread-shaped hat of his.

"Dawn, good to see you again." He was less awkward with her now than he had been yesterday, but still very formal and business-like, especially business-like regarding the Pokédex. Maybe he wasn't much of a conversation person, and was defaulting on something they had in common in order to not let the chat fall into awkward silence and shuffling. "How many Pokémon have you caught?"

Well, between trying and failing to stop a mad Shinx out for what would most likely be considered war crimes against all Starly and a Piplup who found his teammate's genocidal attempts funny, one.

That was what she thought but didn't say. "One," she said. "Meet Sekhmet."

He waved politely at the Shinx, but turned his attention back to her. "You might want to catch some more," he recommended. "The more there are, the harder it gets to look after them all, but in the end they're all worth it-"

Sekhmet's facial expression turned irritated and before Dawn could stop her, the Shinx rammed her body into his leg. Lucas fell flat on his behind because of the impact. "Ahh!"

"Mespirit," Dawn groaned. Every trainer knew – or should know – the rule about captured Pokémon attacking humans. Unless they were extenuating circumstances, the Pokémon was treated as a criminal and could even be put down. "Are you okay? _Sekhmet_!"

"I'm fine," Lucas waved it off, apparently used to such physical treatment from his experience working with Pokémon at the lab. "Maybe she mistook what I said as me calling her weak and you needing 'more power'."

Dawn thought that what he said was a disturbingly good profile of her Pokémon. "What are you, the Pokémon whisperer?"

Sekhmet gave Lucas a leer and smirked when he flinched. "I'm just saying," he continued on. "It'll be hard to look after a lot of them for sure, but more Pokémon would mean that there's going to be that much more joy in your life."

"That's . . ." she thought before saying the next words. "Kind of cheesy."

Lucas deflated slightly. "Is it?"

"Yes. Very."

That had been an invitation to friendly teasing, but Lucas clearly didn't see or take it as such. "Oh. Well, in that case maybe you'd prefer studying about Pokémon instead. Have you been to Jubilife's trainer school?"

She had, but it had been around two years ago and her memory was a bit fuzzy, so being the concerned ally he was he offered to escort her there. Somehow, he managed to navigate through the tall buildings and busy streets to reach a familiar school with the Poké ball logo.

"This brings back both good and bad memories," she sighed, and then turned her head to make a face of confusion when Lucas jostled her.

"Sorry," he muttered even when it wasn't quite his fault. The blame lay in the hands of the man in the long brown trench coat who had bumped into him. "Hey – Mr. Looker?"

Brown trench coat guy froze in surprise. Then, said brown trench coat guy grabbed her and Lucas by their wrists and yanked them aside, to the small cramped space between the school building and a neighbouring establishment.

Sekhmet lunged towards the guy, but said guy simply evaded the charging tackle her Shinx threw at him. "Who are you?" he hissed to Lucas, but his eyes flitted to Dawn's direction as well. There was still daylight, and she saw his face clearly. His face was cleanly shaven, thin with a serious look. He couldn't have been too old – Dawn guessed maybe late twenties, early thirties at most – but he already had lines etched around his dark eyes and a few strands of white in his hair. The thickness of his eyebrows almost made the total effect comic, but his obvious seriousness right now offset that look pretty well.

"Er," Lucas raised his hands slightly in surrender. He glanced back at her and it was obvious that he regretted recognizing this guy. "I'm Lucas. One of the lab assistants at Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem . . . ?" he let the sentence trail off into a question. After all, they were in an otherwise unoccupied alley with a stranger who seemed rather wary at best.

Luckily, that was enough for the guy Lucas had called 'Looker'. He relaxed, and his stern face turned quite a bit friendlier. "Ah," he said sheepishly. "I have not recognized you. My sincerest apologies, Lucas. I hope you can forgive me for the misunderstanding."

Now that he wasn't hissing, Dawn could tell that he spoke with a soft, lilting accent. Nothing too harsh or strong enough to distort and confuse the meaning of his words, but certainly present. Kalosian, maybe.

But as for what he was saying, well, Dawn was confused. "Umm . . . ."

Looker looked at her as well, curiosity clear. "And this is?"

Lucas made a snap decision. "This is Dawn. She's also one of Professor Rowan's assistants."

Which wasn't a lie, because the whole point on her journey was to help the professor's research out. The knowledge did startle her, though. Her, the Regional Pokémon Professor's assistant. He probably had scores of them –hundreds, more likely – but it was still quite a special kind of thought.

Looker made a few circles in the air with his right index finger. "We have not been acquainted?" he asked, and shook her hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Dawn."

"Same, er . . . ." Was Looker really his name? It was a weird one, for sure.

"He's a member of Interpol," Lucas told her at the same time Looker spoke. "Please, call me Looker."

The two guys stopped talking and looked at each other, Lucas with apologetic sheepishness, Looker with surprise. "I suppose there's no harm in telling one of Professor Rowan's assistants," Looker said slowly. "But please, Dawn – keep it a secret."

The best thing to do in a situation like this was probably to walk away and forget that she had heard anything.

She was curious, though. "You're Interpol," Dawn said.

Interpol. The International Police. A law-enforcing organization that existed beyond the boundaries set by regional pride and cultural differences, it was first conceived in the thoughts of Drake Aragon, Seventh Champion of Hoenn. A 'trial' version of the organization had been launched nearly a decade after Drake had introduced it under the name of the Global Police, but they had failed when war broke out with Orre. It was only in the Goldenrod Conferences that the bones of Drake's ideas were structured and laid out into what was the International Police. Interpol would – in theory – catch criminals that abused customs to 'get away with it' and be big enough to take on the big bosses.

So far, Interpol was working better than its predecessor. They hadn't done anything with Hoenn's situation a few years back, when the entire region had nearly broken out into civil war in the struggle between Team Magma and Team Aqua and had actually come close to being destroyed by awakened gods, but they had stepped in to help with Team Rocket in Kanto after the princess of the Sevii Islands and her fiancé had been threatened during the invasion of Saffron City.

Interpol was young, but beginning to carve out a niche in the world for themselves. It was working as well as a young organization in a rapidly changing world could.

The question was, what was an agent of Interpol doing in Jubilife, slumming around? Dawn doubted that he was on vacation – he wouldn't have introduced himself as International Police if that was so – and she couldn't think of any other reasons why he would decide to hang around Jubilife while still working, except that he was on some kind of duty. That much was obvious, from the way he had dragged the two of them into the alley to avoid being seen or overheard.

Dawn gestured, and Sekhmet returned near her feet. The Shinx didn't exactly play cuddly Skitty and rub her body against her booted ankles, but she did take a firm stance nearby. She had bonded pretty well to Dawn after seeing the benefits of being a trained Pokémon (such as food). "Is Looker your actual name?"

He shook his head. "A codename," he explained. "And it is better that way."

She wasn't going to argue. Instead, Dawn continued on. "What are you doing in Sinnoh? I thought the Interpol HQ was in the Ranger Union."

Looker studied her face, and Dawn had the feeling that he was committing it to memory. "Did the professor warn you about thieves?"

A bit taken aback at the question, Dawn shook her head to give the honest answer, even if she considered the question redundant. Who _didn't_ know to be careful of thieves? "Hm," Looker said. "Well, then. I'm sure you've guessed, but I'm in Sinnoh on assignment. There have been . . . unsettling reports about a criminal organization in the region, stealing Pokémon and disobeying laws."

"A criminal organization?" There hadn't been anything like that in the news. Dawn leaned in to listen better. "Like Team Rocket and Magma?"

Looker gave a shrug of his trench-coat wearing shoulders. "I'm afraid that the investigation is still in the beginning stages," he said. "But these are heinous people, yes. Criminals that must be caught for the sake of society's safety."

Words she could wholeheartedly support and believe in. Dawn nodded, trying to encourage him to continue speaking.

Lucas shuffled on his feet. Looker caught the action and gave a friendly smile. "But it seems that I've been holding you both up!" he exclaimed. "Please, don't let me bother you. I shall simply be on my way, and let you continue on with your journeys. The golden ages of youth, after all, must not be wasted in the presence of a foolish one who should have spent his own times better."

He leaned slightly back from them, body already postured to be ready to leave the two of them. "May I request that you pretend to not recognize me," he said lightly, "should our paths cross once more? I must be vigilant while on duty, you understand . . . ."

Looker was ready to flee the scene any second now. "What if we see some suspicious people?" Dawn asked him, hoping to make him continue.

The tall man gave her a polite smile. "Then, first, please alert the local police," he said. "But," he added when he saw the disappointed look on her face. "Should I happen to be present, then please."

It wasn't like she knew how to contact him or anything – of course it would be when he was nearby. Dawn just nodded and gave him a bright smile, and then he was on his own way.

Dawn and Lucas stepped back into the well-lit city again, and watched until the brown trench coat disappeared into the waves of moving people. "Interpol, huh?" Dawn asked Lucas.

He kicked at a pebble absent-mindedly. "He came in to meet the professor one day. They talked for a long time in his office before Professor Rowan introduced him to everyone at the lab and had him talk about how to act when faced with criminals after research information."

A security talk? That didn't seem like what Interpol did. Sure, Professor Rowan was an important person and Sinnoh's Pokémon Professor, but his safety, as well as the security of his research should have lain in the hands of the Sinnoh League. "What did he say you should do?" she asked, interest even more peaked now. There had been a time when she had dreamed of joining Interpol, chasing down bad guys and crushing them before they could hurt people. It had been when she had been eleven years old, beginning to realize that her dreams of becoming Champion might not be possible and a backup plan had to be made.

Barry had snapped her out of that slight depression, of course, with his bravado. There had always been something about her blond friend that made his very presence energizing. Just listening to his bold talks and loud voice made Dawn feel stronger and surer in her own mind. Her plan, her path was all through the same road. Champion – and then, the backup plan was Elite Four or Gym Leader, just like Blue Oak of Kanto. She knew she could accomplish it.

Lucas adjusted his hat. "Just that we shouldn't incense any people trying to threaten us and always try talking. You know, 'I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to'. Agent Looker said that the people that might bother us will mostly be cowards, and when they don't see any fear from intimidation attempts they'll get scared themselves and leave us alone."

So someone was after the professor's research?

"Probably," Lucas admitted when she asked. Now, the two of them were in the school. Barry had indeed signed in at the guest trainer log, so they were making their way down to the drop-in classroom. Hopefully he was still here. "Which is why most of us don't actually carry around any important papers, files or drives unless we absolutely have to. Here we are."

He didn't come with her, and excused himself to work on tagging the local Pokémon. "Good luck on your journey," he said as a farewell.

Dawn wished him something similar, and then she grinned when she caught the sight of the light blond hair that defied every rule of hair in unwritten existence.

Barry stood at the front of the classroom filled with uneven desk rows and lounging trainers. He was staring at the board with enough concentration to bore two holes with the sheer force of his eyes alone. That was just how he was. In things he considered trivial or boring he couldn't give a second's worth of focus for, but for important, interesting things he could go on for hours without budging a muscle.

"Barry!" she called from the back of the room in a volume just a notch above the inside voice level. Not like anyone here cared – they were just hanging around, playing cards or trading items.

He whipped his head back with a mirrored grin. "Yo, Dawn!"

She knew just by the way he was grinning that he was proud of something. When she got closer he practically stabbed the blackboard filled with neatly written explanations about statuses with his finger. "I memorized _everything_ on this board," he bragged. "Just quiz me if you don't believe me; I'll get it all right."

"I believe you," Dawn said.

"Mm-hm," Barry swaggered slightly. "After all, it's a trainer's job to make sure their precious Pokémon aren't hurt in battle. And that's what I am – a trainer."

"A good one," she added for his sake.

"A good one," he agreed before finally remembering his manners. "So, what brings you here?"

"Excellent question." Dawn dug through her bag and pulled out a slightly rumpled package. "Your mom told me to give this to you when I saw you."

"Mom? Why didn't she give this to me when I was at home?"

Dawn snickered. "Because you ran out before she could say anything."

"Oh. So what is this, anyways?" easily distracted as usual, Barry tore the package open and took out two books. He flipped through the pages, finding illustrations on routes, cities and towns. "Hey, it's a map of Sinnoh!"

Dawn touched her pocket, feeling her own worn and battered copy that she constantly consulted whenever she planned out her journey. Hers was just a single page, showing the basic outline of the region.

Barry glanced at her, and then he shoved his hand into her coat pocket – "Hey!" – and yanked it out. It ripped slightly, the creases that had been folded and refolded countless times too frail to last under his rough treatment. "Hey!" she protested again.

"Man, Dawn," he said. "_What_ are you going to do with a map like this? You're going to get lost in the first three seconds."

"Will not," she grumbled, but she knew he was right. She had no sense of direction whatsoever.

Barry handed her one of his books. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

"You sure?" she asked him even as she took it.

"I have two," he shrugged. "And you probably need it more than I do."

Which was true. Even when she had been the caretaker of the two, he had always been the one to keep track of directions and locations. Perhaps this was why Aunt Margaret had given him two, so he could give her one.

Barry flipped a few pages through his map before he stopped on Oreburgh. "That's my next location," he said, yanking the straps of his backpack onto his shoulder. "See ya."

"You're leaving?" she asked.

"Well, sure," he shrugged. "My first gym badge is waiting for me there. Can't keep it waiting too long, you know? Want to come with?"

A tempting offer, but Dawn had to decline. "I'm going to train a bit further," she explained.

Barry rubbed his chin, just like his father did. "If you're going to stay," he said, "then you should battle the trainers here. Get stronger and all, you hear? Otherwise, you're not a rival fit for me."

Dawn raised both her eyebrows, unable to raise only one. "Who won the battle we had?"

"That was a fluke!" he screeched. "I'll win next time, you hear?"

Same old Barry. She smirked at him. "Sure. Good luck on your badge."

"Same. Okay, see ya!"

And then a blond streak shot through the door and he was gone.

Since both Lucas and Barry had advised that she give the school a post-trainerdom whirl, she stuck around. When she took a pop quiz on statuses and found that she knew everything, the teacher – who had finally slunk inside to check on one-day trainers – suggested that she battle some of the kids in the regular class who had yet to start their journey. The students there were obviously eager to try out tactics and battle items in actual battle, and she found it a nice way of training not only Sekhmet and Neptune, but also herself so she would get used to being in trainer battles, even if they were simple ones.

"You're strong," the girl with the Bidoof said, recalling her fainted Pokémon. Next to her, the boy with the Starly nodded. "Even with the X Attack . . . ."

Dawn shrugged. "It's only because we managed to knock you out before you could fully use your item," she said, patting Neptune and trying to make him a more humble winner.

Sekhmet licked her paw and grinned.

Both of them didn't really need to be healed, but just in case Dawn dropped by the center. "Behave," she warned them as they were recalled. The nurse smiled at that as she took them away on a tray.

After a ten minute wait, Neptune and Sekhmet were as good as new. "Let's get going, then," she told them. "I think we have about three more hours before the sun sets, and –"

And she wanted to get a bit more training done before night fell, but she never got around to saying it out loud. "You _think_ you have about three more hours?!"

At the outraged squawk, Dawn stumbled in shock.

A chubby man with a rather cool set of mustachios stomped her way. "Child," he said to her. "Do you mean to say that you don't have the time on you?"

"Umm . . . ."

Mustachio-man grabbed her hands and checked her wrists, bare of everything except a bracelet of stone beads, with a glare to shame an angry Staraptor. "I say, I say!" he said. "This is most unusual."

"What's most unusual?" she asked when he released her hands – with a flair that suggested disgust, to add. She washed her hands and applied lotion to them regularly, and didn't find them disgusting to the point of offense. In fact, she didn't find them disgusting at all.

"You are a trainer, yes?"

Dawn looked down at the two Pokémon with her. What possibly gave her away? "Yes."

"Yet you have no Pokétch!" he boomed in her face, the whites of his eyes visible due to his rage. "A Pokémon trainer without a Pokétch is like pasta without sauce! Like candy without sugar! Like . . . like . . ."

"Peanut butter without jelly?"

"Precisely!" Dawn flinched when a fleck of spit landed on her cheek and discreetly tried to wipe it away with the edge of her coat's sleeve. Too absorbed in his dramatics, mustachio-man didn't notice. "I assume, my dear, that you _do_ know what a Pokétch is?"

"Yes," she felt like she needed to add something, to be polite. "The ads are cool."

"Ah, yes, the commercials. I directed them myself – but _that is not the point_! A trainer without a Pokétch!" he took in a deep, rattling breath before letting it all out in a furious bellow. "This is an _outrage_! A gross error of the cruel universe! And," he dropped his voice. "It must be fixed."

Dawn tried to break it down to him gently. "I'd buy one if I could, but they're kind of expensive and I'd rather hold my funds back so I can help my Pokémon."

Not a lie. She _would_ rather use money she had for the sake of her Pokémon rather than a fancy wristwatch. Her mother could always get her one, as could the rest of the family, but Dawn wasn't partial to the idea of her family bankrolling her through. Neither was Johanna, nor the Steele family, famous for not bankrolling their training family members through everything. To even start thinking about getting the Steele monetary support behind her she'd have to earn six badges.

"No need for money, my dear! There is a week-long campaign going on in Jubilife right this moment! As the president of the company that created the Pokétch, I extend my heartfelt invitations for you to join! In fact, I _insist_ that you partake in it!"

Which was how she ended up on a manhunt for clowns. "Why clowns?" she asked her Pokémon as they wandered down the streets of Jubilife. "I mean, sure, they stick out, but why clowns? Why not people in Pokémon cosplay or something?"

Luckily, she didn't have the clown phobia and didn't fear any harlequin, even when they were dressed in a gross shade of yellow like the one that stood next to the mart. "Hello, hello, you found me!" the clown, sounding much like mustachio-head-corp to her. "Before I give you the coupon, you must correctly answer a question! When Pokémon fight and win a battle, they get experience. True or false?"

"True."

"AB-SO-LUTELY CORRECT!" he bellowed and she flinched as, for the second time that day, someone's spittle fell on her cheek. "Have a coupon!"

She only read what was on it after there was a safe distance of five buildings between her and the loud clown. "Coupon One," she read aloud. "Two more to go."

The next clown was in front of the Jubilife TV station, juggling a few Poké balls. "Oh, hi!" he smiled at her, which proved to be a mistake as several of them fell onto his head. Onlookers laughed while he chuckled sheepishly. "Guess that was a mistake," he said as Dawn helped him collect them. "So, you here for the promo event?"

"Yes. Already have one coupon."

"Great. Here's my quiz for you. Can Pokémon hold items?"

"They can." To verify her answer she tossed a Poké ball at Neptune, who caught it easily and spun it on the tip of his beak to show off. A small girl clapped as she and her parents walked by.

"Wasn't quite what I was going for, but works for me," the clown handed her a coupon.

"Thank you."

As she walked away, Dawn flipped the coupon to read . . . "Coupon Three?"

She must have missed a clown somewhere between. Dawn doubled back with Neptune and Sekhmet a few times before a flash of the gross yellow caught her eyes. Going to the western part of the city, she found the third – or second – harlequin in front of the company, munching on a hot dog while rummaging through a rather cool Crobatman lunchbox. "Oh hi," he said when he noticed her standing there with the coupons in her hand. "Here for the campaign, I see."

Dawn realized that she was witnessing someone ditch work for lunch. Normally she would have reprimanded or at least reported him discreetly, but . . . .

That Crobatman lunchbox. Someone who loved Crobatman even in his adulthood couldn't possibly be a bad person. "Yes."

"Okay," he dusted the area around his painted mouth carefully with a napkin before pulling a cue card out from behind her ear. "Moves," he read aloud, "not just Pokémon, have types assigned to them as well. True or false?"

. . . This wasn't a campaign so much as it was a free giveaway of Pokétches. Not that she was complaining. "True."

"Yup. Here you go."

"Thank you," she said and took Coupon Two. "Nice Crobatman lunchbox."

He didn't take it as a sarcastic jibe, and instead smiled at the sincere compliment. "Thanks. It's a limited edition."

She nodded in return, but found nothing else to really say. And then, feeling rather awkward, she fled the area and hastily returned to the company's owner, who, true to his promise, was standing exactly where he had been earlier on.

"Are those the coupons?" he seized them from her hands. "Let me count them using the app on my Pokétch. One, two, three . . . ."

Either he was showing off the functions of his watch, or he was really bad at math. Dawn watched as he furrowed his brows in thought before snapping his fingers. "That's right! Congratulations, you just won yourself a free Pokétch!"

"Thank you," she said as she accepted the pink box the head had pulled out from a digital storage key.

"Enjoy!"

While shopping for supplies, she checked out her new watch's applications. A digital clock, a calculator, a step counter, an email and a status checker for her party Pokémon that she synchronized to her Poké balls immediately. Pretty decent and useful.

"Seems like we saved ourselves some money," Dawn told the two Pokémon that appeared as perfectly healthy on the status app. But the items she could buy were still restricted by badge count (zero), and the shops didn't have anything in her price range. The day was still young – still time to look for trainers willing to battle.

They saw that Looker was drifting around the east of the city, towards Route 203, so they avoided that area and opted for the northern Route 204.

It wasn't a bad experience. Sekhmet took down five wild Starly and one that belonged to a trainer without once losing her temper – although the aggression was still there – and learned how to use charge. When they tried the electric converter, it worked perfectly.

Neptune, not to be outdone or outshone, pounded and bubbled away everything including the grass-type Budew some of the trainers used. He also made himself learn water sport.

"You know, friendly competition's good and everything but you're supposed to be on the same team," she reminded them as they headed back after filling Neptune's Poké ball from a pond. With the sheer size of Jubilife, she guessed that the center would be booked full if they didn't go early.

They were too tired to argue. Dawn returned them and hurried to the center so they could be healed.

"We'll head out towards Oreburgh tomorrow," she promised them in their room. "I think we're ready for our first gym challenge."

And then she remembered. "Oh. Wait. Before we head out to Route 203, we just need to drop by somewhere first."

At their inquiring looks she gave them a sad smile. "It's something that you two should really know, since we're going to be together for a long journey."

For the rest of the night, she alternated between texting Lyra on her new watch through the email app and laughing at the comedy show playing on TV in the waiting room.

* * *

The next morning, their final stop in Jubilife City was the memorial.

She really should have come here in the first place, but she had been trying to delay it. It was one thing to visit a gravestone, another thing entirely to go to the site of death. It was bad enough seeing it everywhere, every year around a certain time. The video of the Global Trade Station being destroyed by far too many explosions, taking lives of over a thousand gone in flames of fanatics had been filmed at this very site.

Dawn thought she could hear the screams of the dying and shook her head to clear it.

Neptune and Sekhmet must have sensed some shift in her emotion as the three of them approached, because they fell into a respectful silence. She appreciated that.

Dawn laid the soda she had bought earlier on in front of the memorial, next to a few roses and some other flower she didn't know the name of. There were always flowers or offerings here, even in the winter. No one wanted to forget the victims, or let their spirits sit in abandoned silence. No one wanted to forget.

But they buried the memory of the days before this away, and they hid. They let the bullies win. Dawn scowled at the hypocrisy of 'never forgetting'. "Do you know the story of the 11/9 attack?" she asked, not expecting them to.

Her Pokémon shook their heads. "Well," she said slowly, thinking over her words. "There was . . . There were people who didn't agree with what choices the Champion was making. So to make a point, they brought a lot of Pokémon and made the building he and his friends were in explode."

That didn't come even close to properly explaining just what had happened, but she couldn't go into detail, not in front of the obelisk, and not here. It wasn't fair to retell the reason why all these innocent people had lost their lives like she was reciting a history paper at the sight of their death.

"This was the Global Trade Station," she said. "It's where people traded Pokémon with other people in different regions before the trade system was made easier to access. They dealt with other things, too. Stocks, banking and all that."

She knew where the one particular name was. Fifth column, twenty-seventh row, golden script on black marble. A bit too far for her to be able to see from below, but she knew where it was.

"They made the Global Terminal to replace it – it's down a few blocks from here – because even when bad things happen in life, trades still need to be made and money still needs to be dealt with."

Because even when sad things, even when bad things happened, the world went on spinning and living.

Her Pokémon fidgeted. Sekhmet got closer without a treat being offered and butted her head against Dawn's leg. Neptune patted the top of her foot.

Years ago when the pain was fresh and she was a child, when someone who didn't know asked what her father did for a living, she would freeze up before bursting into tears. Now the wound was healed, not as sore and fresh. It still hurt, but it wasn't a crippling pain. "My dad was working in the Global Trade Station when they – the disagreeing people – set off the explosion."

It wasn't a crippling pain anymore. It was part of a motive, a drive that kept her going. A fire burning to add to her ambition.

Dawn patted her Pokémon on their heads. "I'm telling you this for a reason," she said quietly, but her voice was strong. Good. "On this journey, we're partners. I won't say we're friends yet – I'd like to be, but friendship takes time to be strong and permanent. We'll get there later if I have something to say about it, but right now, we're partners."

Her two Pokémon, both just as ambitious as she was, looked straight back at her with clear eyes. The two of them both knew what she was saying to them. They understood her words perfectly. "This means that we can trust each other with our backs, alright? It may be hard for the two of you to trust me, but know that I trust you, and that I'll have your backs no matter what."

Sekhmet lightly head-butted Dawn's hand. It wasn't rejection, but rather a one-sided high five of a sort. Neptune took one of her hands with his downy flipper and shook.

Dawn stood up and gave one last look to the memorial. "Good. Let's get going, then."

It might have been her imagination, but she felt like their support of her was a lot stronger now than it had been before.

* * *

Looker was no longer around Route 203, so she assumed that she was allowed to pass. A short way down, she saw Barry, who was just taking something from a grumbling trainer. "Hey!" she called, and jogged up to him. Neptune recognized him, and began to explain to Sekhmet just who the blond kid was in Pokémon speech as she hadn't met him before.

He waved back and bounced impatiently on his toes. "You're late, as usual," he sighed. "You better have gotten tougher!"

"I could say the same for you," she countered. "Seeing as we _beat_ you the last time, I'm going to be disappointed if you didn't get even a little stronger."

"Of course we did!" he yanked his sleeves up roughly. "And I'll demonstrate, too! Go, Starling!"

Dawn sent a mental prayer up to Mespirit when she saw his Starly. That was a _big_ Starly.

If Sekhmet had really gotten her grudge against the birds settled, she wouldn't react to the large bird. If she hadn't and went into berserk mode again, Dawn would return her before going back to work on her in the routes around Jubilife. "Sekhmet," she said, "let's see if you have your anger under control."

Her little Shinx didn't go into crazy mode, but her intimidate was still enough to make Starling cower. "Thank Mespirit," she muttered, and then raised her voice. "Tackle!"

"Hey, no fair!" Barry protested when Starling fell with a single blow to the neck, having been too shaken to properly protect his vital regions. "I wasn't ready!"

"Sorry," she said, not quite apologetic. It wasn't a formal battle between the two of them, and he was the one always nagging her about not being on top of things. This was his fault. And knowing him, he'd recover.

Like she predicted, Barry shook it off. "Alright then, trusty buddy! Go, Champ!"

The Turtwig bound out happily. When he recognized her and Neptune, he gave a little wave with his stumpy leg before falling over due to losing his balance. "Hey, little guy," she said. "So you named him Champ?"

"Yeah! Because we're going to be the toughest ever! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!"

"You'll have to beat us first!" But her mind was going into overdrive even as she said this playfully. Grass had an advantage over water. Did Champ know any grass-type moves?

She remembered how Champ had withstood so many attacks with ease during their first battle. He had a high defense.

And Sekhmet could solve that problem easily with a move right up her alley. "Can you keep going?" she asked the Shinx, who yowled. "Then let's do this! Leer!"

Champ flinched at the fearsome look on Sekhmet's face. "Quick!" Barry ordered. "Counter it with withdraw!"

Dawn, a bit taken back, had to recover quickly. "Keep leering at him!"

"Cover your defenses! Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!"

Barry was . . . surprisingly patient. Whenever Champ tried to peer out of his shell and look for an opportunity to attack, Sekhmet's eyes were there to glower. This was only countered by the constant withdrawal and rearranging of limbs within the shell to cover the drops in defense.

Sekhmet was getting impatient. And, judging by the way her leers grew more and more murderous, she was getting outraged. Finally, she leapt forwards and tackled the shell Champ was hiding in.

"Heh," Barry smirked and Dawn did a double take. Had he actually based a strategy on this? He didn't know her Pokémon, but he had actually managed to stay patient enough until Sekmet's limited amount had run out.

. . . Or he could just be happy that he had an edge. She was looking at it too closely, when she needed to be quick on her feet.

Barry snapped his fingers. "Champ, let's move to the offensive as well!"

The Turtwig kept most of his body within his shell, but used his two rear legs to propel his entire weight into a leaping Sekhmet's stomach. When she got to her feet again and tried to jump him, he hastily pulled his legs back in.

It wasn't another struggle for defense. Not when Sekhmet was too incensed to listen to orders. She charged recklessly and was hit with strategic tackles. When she shook too much on her feet, Dawn called her back. "Time! Potion break!"

She pulled a spray bottle out of her bag's item storage and gave Sekhmet's entire body a good spray. "Don't overdo it," she warned the electric type that was squirming in her hold, ready to go out and battle again. "I don't want you to get too hurt."

Dawn wasn't sure if Sekhmet had even heard. The Shinx had gone right back to glaring at Champ, who stood looking like he could go on for the rest of the day. Sekhmet leapt right back in.

"Alright, I think that's enough withdrawals," Barry sighed. "Tackle barrage!"

Champ was slow. His bulk, while amazing in defense, did cost him in speed. But he was pretty strong. Soon Sekhmet looked just as battered as she had before the potion.

This gave Dawn two choices. One was to recall her and use Neptune while Sekhmet was healed to freshen her up, and the other was to let her fight until she was knocked out.

Sekhmet obviously wanted to go down fighting, but Dawn still didn't know whether Champ knew any grass type moves or not. And if Sekhmet was out, Neptune would be nothing but fodder for grass based attacks. She needed to keep Sekhmet in reserve.

"Return! Neptune, go buddy!"

Barry grinned. "Tackle!"

"Bubble, then pound him when he's near!"

It turned out that Dawn was lucky in two ways. Champ had _not_ learnt any grass-type moves _and_ he had been significantly worn out by Sekhmet before she had been switched out. Neptune managed to knock him out with a pound that hit a critical spot after hiding behind a bubble attack. "Whoo!" she cheered, jumping up and down before picking up Neptune and Sekhmet. "We won! Yeah! Go, Team Dawn! Go Sekhmet! Go Neptune!"

"Whaaat?" Barry gawked, quickly returning Champ. "I lost again? No way!"

"Yes way!" she crowed.

"Well, that's it!" he clenched his hands into fists and raised them into the air. "That's the last time I lose! And then I'll be the world's toughest trainer!"

"No, I will!"

"No, me!"

"No, _me_!"

After the fake trash-talk, bravado banter, they ran to the Pokémon Center and had everyone healed up. "I'm going to have to challenge the Oreburgh gym to toughen up," he said when he received Champ and Starling from the receptionist.

Dawn shot him a look. "After all that talk about _me_ being slow, you're telling me you haven't even challenged the gym yet?"

"Hey, I was getting to know Starling better," he protested.

* * *

"Hey."

Sekhmet scratched the back of her neck with the star on her tail. "What?" she asked the bird that had just fluttered down onto the ground next to her. Neptune was with Champ on the other side of their trainers, apparently chatting. She supposed she should follow his example. It appeared that her girl was a close friend to the blond boy. Not close in the sense like a mate, but something like a fellow member of the pack. If they were close, then she would see the bird a lot.

"I just wanted to say that was a good battle," he said.

She eyed him. "And?"

"Does there always have to be an 'and'?" Starling asked. When she continued to give him an unimpressed look, he sighed and continued. "But I'm going to beat you next time."

Sekhmet snorted and stretched her front legs. This bird was under high delusions. "Bloody unlikely," she told him frankly.

Starling bristled. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're not going to beat me, of course," she replied calmly. This bird had been stronger than the one that had knocked her out a few days ago, and yet she had won against him. Now that she was strong enough, there was no need for her to defeat his kind to avenge the humiliation she had felt for being knocked out by a creature that was supposed to be weak to her. "I am lightning. You are a bird. I will always be stronger than you."

"Oh yeah?" Starling fluffed up. Sekhmet shot him a glare that had him flinch.

"Yes."

The two older members of the teams were also having a conversation, but they weren't building rivalries like the other two. Rather, they were getting reacquainted now that they weren't in the too-clean building that had reeked of sanitizer.

"How's training treating you?" Champ was a very relaxed Pokémon. Neptune had noticed that about the Turtwig, back when they had lived in the lab and he hadn't been called Neptune. Before Dawn, as the time could be called.

"Good," he replied, stretching a flipper. He fancied that the earlier pound had left a ghost of a pain on it. He could get through it, easily. "The girl's pretty smart, even if she's weird. I suppose I'm fortunate." She was likeable enough to earn his help, anyways.

"Yeah, I feel the same about mine. He's loud and runs fast, but he always makes sure that I'm with him." Champ shook his head. "Wonder how _she's_ doing."

There was only one female he'd be referring to in his presence. "The Chimchar?" Neptune dug for a memory. "Heard she goes by the name Charlotte now." Or something like that. He was pretty sure it was Charlotte, though. She had been proud of it when they had met again a few days ago, just as proud of the fact that she was on her trainer's shoulder.

Bah. His name was one of a powerful deity's, and it was his job, his sacred _duty_ to protect _his_ trainer because she needed help and power standing behind her. He couldn't do that if she was carrying him around like some baby. He needed to hurry and evolve into a Prinplup, and then an Empoleon. He'd been stuck in this tiny, baby like form – and the lab – for far too long now, and didn't want to stay a Piplup for any longer than he had to. Cuddling in public was degrading and adding to the humiliation, and his trainer understood that fine even if she was a girl. Chimchar – Charlotte – apparently didn't.

"Weird name. Maybe it's because she's a girl."

"Maybe," Neptune agreed, pleased that his friend had followed his path of thought. "The assistant boy always did like her more than us."

"His loss," Champ shrugged. "Our gain."

Some hissing from his teammate's direction had him look over, where Sekhmet was leering at Starling. "She's going to be a handful when she learns electric attacks," he grumbled.

"Never had to worry about that," Champ sniffed, lying down on the ground and making himself comfortable. "Probably never will."

* * *

AN: When Lucas was demonstrating how to catch a Pokémon, he had a female Chimchar (and I was all WTF man). Later, during the tag team battle against the grunts, the game forgot and made her male. I decided to write her as female for the whole story because it was cool that the NPC default got a female starter.

Global Police: For those of you who played FRLG, on the S.S. Anne there's a gentleman who refers to himself as a member of the Global Police. The timeline was changed so that the Global Police was like the predecessor to Interpol. I based the succession and the concept off of the creation (and failure and subsequent replacement) of the League of Nations.


	5. Coals into Diamonds

A.S.107

July 5th

_Today was my first gym battle._

* * *

After a few more banters, Dawn waved to Barry as he dashed down Route 203 and into Oreburgh Gate. As soon as he was out of sight, her hand and smile dropped. "He was . . . stronger," she muttered to herself.

Chirping a question, Neptune poked her knee.

"Yeah, you two were absolutely splendid," she smiled down at them, but her worries didn't go away. They had won, but would they win again next time?

And she had used a potion in battle, too. Not that they hadn't banned using items, but he hadn't healed his Pokémon. Didn't that mean he was, technically, stronger?

The only solution, as she saw it, was to simply get stronger so he couldn't beat her. "Hey, why don't we train a bit here? There's no need to rush through."

Dawn was relieved when neither of them complained. They spent the daylight of ten days weaving through the woods near Jubilife, searching for wild Pokémon – discovering that wild Abra had a nasty habit of teleporting away before one could even reach for a Poké ball, empty or not – and battling trainers.

From what she knew about rock Pokémon indigenous to the area around Oreburgh, as well as what was known about Roark, she came up with a few strategies. They weren't as complex as the ones Uncle Palmer had told her and Barry about, a few times, but they were good enough. Hopefully.

But to really test that out they needed to try this against rock type Pokémon, which would be the Oreburgh Gym's specialty type.

She stocked up on supplies, got them through checkups and packed up all her belongings. The next day, they were marching through the Oreburgh Gate with the plan of hanging out in the city for a few days. Oreburgh had the largest mine in all of Sinnoh, and sections of it were set aside for trainer use. Once they were used to fighting against rocky Pokémon, they would challenge the gym. She wanted to see if her ideas would work.

Oreburgh Gate was pretty much a long tunnel. Dark, rocky and wild Pokémon here and there, although they kept a wary distance most of the time. The Geodude that dared to come nearby were met with a taste of something they wanted to pull off at the gym, but after the first three even the hard-headed rock types stopped bothering them.

Dawn should have known that it would be harder to train in the main way through the gate. This part – the main 'hallway' of the tunnel stretching long from Route 203 to Oreburgh – was a 'safe' area, made by the miners of Oreburgh to ensure that the stream of people coming their way didn't die out crossing over the harsh Coronet mountains. There were rangers keeping eyes out, as well as some groups of younger kids being taken around by older trainers and even some hikers.

One of the lone hikers inside waved her over. "You're a new trainer, aren't you?" he asked, peering at her with eyes set in deep wrinkles.

"Is it obvious?" she asked.

He nodded. Dawn sighed.

"But I'm sure you'll be a great one," he added. Probably to make her feel better.

Well, it did. "Thank you."

"Good to see young kids involved in healthy activities," the hiker mused. "No drugs, no getting pregnant or playing video games indoors all day . . . ."

That good feeling was replaced by wariness as his words began to creep her out. Dawn briefly entertained the thought of having Sekhmet tackle him, but settled for taking a half-step back. "Thank you?"

He snapped out of his thoughts. "Hmm? Oh, right. Well, keep it up, kid. Here's something that could help."

It was a Hidden Machine for rock smash. Neither of her two Pokémon could learn it, but she still thanked him – again – and hurried along. There were a few trainers who wanted some battles, but other than that there weren't any notable events.

Outside, she took a deep breath. "We're out!" she cheered. The Gate, true to its name, was practically at the doorsteps of Oreburgh city. She could see the few tall buildings amongst sky-high conveyer belts painted red, whirring and transporting mined ores out from the ground and into shipping containers to be taken all across the region and exported.

Her cheer faded a bit when she took a few steps into Oreburgh and realized she had no idea just which direction the gym was in. "Shoot."

She could check her map . . . or she could just ask for directions. Dawn waved down a youngster, hoping he wouldn't be a passerby trainer like her. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but do you know where the Oreburgh Gym is?"

He gave her a grin. "Are you a new trainer?"

She held back a sigh. "Is it that obvious?" Dawn asked him, thinking of how the hiker had known with just a glance.

"Just guessing. So, how many badges?"

"Well, if I get there and win, then one." It was better than admitting zero out loud. That was the story she was sticking to.

"Ah, so you're a newbie," he crossed his arms. "You know, since it's your first badge you're going for, I'll take you to the gym myself!"

That was a lot better than she could have hoped for. "Thanks, man!"

He led her by a few streets and buildings. "That's the Oreburgh Gym," he told her, pointing at a large building with a brown roof. "And – there's someone in front of it."

But Dawn was already surging forwards because she recognized the Starly, the Turtwig and the sandy blond hair. "Barry!"

The boy grumbled – of course the ones with boyfriends asked for help – and stalked away angrily while Barry danced in his spot, too excited to hold still. "You're _laaate_," he sang. "You missed seeing me win my badge. And by three days!"

"We trained," she corrected. "Better safe than sorry."

"Hmph. We're good as is!" he pounded his chest with one fist. "And anyways, you're too late. The gym leader's not here."

Dawn shrugged. "That's fine with me. I want to try training in the mines, anyways."

Barry gave her a suspicious look. "For how long?"

"A few days?" Dawn gave a modest estimate. She was thinking of cutting that estimate, though. How had Barry gotten his first badge already?

"So slow," Barry groaned. "Well, see ya!"

She grabbed the ends of his scarf and yanked before he could run away from her. "Ack!"

"Where are you going?" she asked him while he wheezed and loosened his scarf.

"To train!" he said, once his scarf wasn't tight around his neck. "Route 207's supposed to have some pretty neat Pokémon and I wanted to check it out."

" . . . good luck," she said, and he ran off, this time with the edges of his scarf clutched close to him so she couldn't yank them back again.

During the times they'd known each other, Aunt Margaret and her mother had spent a considerable chunk of their nagging to drill into both their heads that Barry was to stick with Dawn, and not ditch her because she was 'too slow', just like how Dawn was not to ditch Barry because he was 'rushing it'. Safety was a priority, they had stressed frequently.

For a moment Dawn had been about to remind him of not ditching her. She'd been brainwashed a lot more than she had thought.

She tossed her hair back and held her back a little straighter than she usually did. She was a trainer now, with her own Pokémon. She didn't need to have a guy around to be safe. Sure, there were statistics of crime rates being high around trainers, but Sinnoh's crime rates in general had always been amongst the lowest in the world – 11/9 being an extreme exception – and she was careful. She would be fine. She could take care of herself.

After all, if she'd beaten Barry, then she didn't need him to be safe, right?

Right. She had beaten him, and would continue to beat him. She would be fine.

And to prove just how well she could take care of herself, Dawn decided to go down into the mines and fetch the gym leader back up to the surface so she could challenge him. As soon as possible would be preferable, possibly even within the day.

* * *

Whether she and her Pokémon were going to be able to defend themselves or not would have to be put to the tests later. Right now, Dawn was more focused on navigating through the mines without needlessly getting into a dangerous area.

That wasn't to say that the mines weren't bad. The people working were surprisingly friendly, and even offered to battle her on her way down – easy way of testing if their training was going to be effective against rock types, as the workers had Pokémon common to the mines like Geodude on them. Their willingness to battle her may have come more from the boredom of work, but it worked for her favour.

"You're pretty good, kid," one of them, a worker who had introduced himself as Colin, said after Neptune beat his Geodude. The other workers hadn't known where Roark was at the moment, but had pointed her to the most likely places. Colin swore he knew where Roark was, and said that he would tell her if she beat him because it was more fun to get somewhere after going through a mission. His words. "But can you take – Mort!"

Sekhmet, after an unfortunate encounter with one of the wild Geodude residing in the caves, had been metaphorically benched against all rock and ground types. Dawn now let her out to face the Machop. Most of the workers seemed happy using their Geodude, but it seemed Colin would prefer using his Machop as well. "Tackle!" she ordered Sekhmet.

"Leer!"

Her Shinx flinched after getting leered at for the first time herself. It seemed to unnerve her, but she still took out the Machop with another tackle. And then she was surrounded with electricity, even when she hadn't used charge.

Dawn's Pokédex told her that Sekhmet had learned an electric attack move – spark. A physical move that had a chance of causing paralysis, it was good for the Shinx family, who was more gifted in attack rather than special attack.

Sekhmet grinned when she was told the good news. She tried it against a Zubat that got too close and knocked the flying type back, much to her delight.

"Okay, so you're pretty good," Colin admitted. "Guess I won't have to hold you back any further, little lady. Roark! You've got yourself a challenger here!"

A guy in gray work clothes and a red miner's helmet glanced their way before heading over. "Hey," he nodded to Colin before facing her. In the dim light and the shadows of the helmet he wore she could make out the features of one of Sinnoh's gym leaders, now that he had been pointed out to her. "So, you're here to challenge me?"

"Not _here_ here," Dawn corrected. "I just came here because I heard you were down in the mines instead of in the gym."

Roark pulled out a pair of slightly stained glasses from his inner pocket before putting them on. "There," he said. "Now I can see better. Think you've got what it takes to face me and win?"

"She's a tough cookie," Colin interjected.

"Yes," said Dawn at the same time.

The gym leader gave an amused smile. "I thought you were my friend," he said jokingly to Colin before looking at her more seriously. "I'll hold you to that promise," he said. "Alright. Mason! Make sure no one does anything too stupid while I'm gone!"

"You got it, Roark!"

"That includes throwing parties during work hours!" the miners all groaned good-naturedly, and Roark smirked at them before turning to face her. He had to look down a bit to meet her eyes. "And you," he said. "What's your name?"

She squared her back and straightened her stance. "Dawn. Dawn Steele."

At the mention of her last name some of the miners gave curious looks, but she remained stony-faced and maintained eye contact with Roark.

Despite his youth, he really was a gym leader. He didn't even react. "Nice to meet you, Dawn Steele," he removed the dirty glove from his right hand and offered it in a handshake. She took it – he had a lot of calluses – and shook it as firmly and as seriously as she could. From his pleased look, she had done the right thing. "I'm Roark Martin, and I'll accept your challenge in the gym. Be there, or be square."

And then he headed up.

Dawn stayed behind, just for a few moments. "What does it mean to be square?" she asked Colin.

"Dunno," he shrugged, shifting off his feet and deciding that he better start getting back to work. "But he says it a lot, so it must be something that he understands. Why don't you ask him?"

"Sure, I'll do that."

* * *

Before heading to the gym, she took a little detour and got her Pokémon healed at the center. Ten minutes later, she was in front of the gym. Barry was gone – knowing him, _long_ gone – and her first gym challenge was about to start. "Let's do this," she said and stepped in. It was five in the afternoon, and she wanted to get dinner to celebrate.

A guy at the front waved her down. "Identification?"

Security had gone up after 11/9; and while gym leaders weren't kept out of the spotlight with their identities kept as a secret like the Elite Four and the Champion were, safety precautions taken had been increased. Registrations needed to be made with a League-mandated Trainer ID, and files on said ID were kept on permanent record in case the trainer needed to be investigated later on. Lobbies for privacy had been unable to stand after 11/9 and the laws had passed to allow it.

But even before that, gyms had taken appointments. Gym Leaders, after all, had their own lives to live, and there were only so many people that could be battled in a day. Had it been a busy day at the gym, with appointments booked until the next day, Dawn would have probably never forgiven herself for her stupidity in just rushing off. As it was, she was lucky – no one had booked an appointment for a gym battle at the time she came along.

She handed over her trainer card and waited while he scanned it into the computer. "All in order," he said. "And the trainers in this gym have been alerted that this is your first badge challenge. Do you require an explanation?"

He reminded her of a robot. "Yes please," she said, because she wanted to refresh her memory. The last time she had cracked open her trainer's handbook had been months ago, because she had been so sure she knew everything inside. Now she was feeling the Beautifly in her stomach flutter, and her palms sweat. She wanted this – to battle, to win badges – but it was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Her heartbeat, frantic and erratic, could probably be heard by everyone around.

"The leader, Roark, will use Pokémon deemed at a level adequate for a beginner's challenge. You may avoid the gym trainers within this gym, or battle them. You may leave the gym to heal your Pokémon any time you wish – and this is recommended to maintain the health of Pokémon. As a first badge challenge, the leader will use a set amount of Pokémon, but any challengers may use any number of Pokémon, from one to a full party. Depending on the number of badges owned by the challenger, the leader will use a certain quality and amount of healing items in the battle, as well as Pokémon that have been restrained. These Pokémon may or may not be the leader's signature or main party Pokémon. Any questions?"

Dawn thought for a bit. "No, that's good. Thanks!"

The robot-guy gave her a ghost of a smile. "Good luck."

Because they could and because Neptune had ran ahead before she could make up her mind, they challenged the two gym trainers. Neptune had learned peck while down in the mines – as the band-aid covering her bleeding finger could attest to – but a flying type move wasn't going to do much in a rock type gym so they stuck to his bubble. As nice as it would have been, testing out some theories with rock Pokémon trained at the gym, she didn't want to tip her hand and give Roark a hint.

The first trainer shook his head. "I think I get why you didn't just avoid us."

Dawn gave a non-committing grunt and struggled to catch up with Neptune, who had already run ahead and was bothering the next guy by pecking the ground around his feet and making him jump around.

The next guy also had a Geodude, and it was just as easily taken down by bubble. Neptune chirped proudly when he began to glow. "Whoa!" the gym trainer took a step back.

The glowing continued and actually grew. Once the bright supernova had faded, she found Neptune to be taller and buffer, looking very much like the Prinplup picture she had seen two weeks back. "You evolved!" she cheered. Even Sekhmet laid aside their teammate pseudo-rivalry thing to lightly butt him on the back.

And if she remembered correctly, Prinplup had stronger fins than Piplup, and evolution normally triggered a new move. Her Pokédex confirmed her memory, informing her that the newly-evolved Neptune could use metal claw.

"Awesome," the guy she was battling said, sounding like he didn't really mean it. "But my next Pokémon won't be so easy to beat, even with evolution under your belt."

He sent out an Onix, and for a moment she panicked because that snake was huge and rather scary. It was literally a rolling mass of boulders that could have crushed her squat, and the way it rumbled and roared only made it worse.

Logic and rationale overcame the initial surge of panic, brought on by sheer natural survival instincts. One, Palmer's Rhypherior had a louder and scarier roar. Less grating and more timber, but still scarier. Two, this was a gym Pokémon. Nothing was perfect, but there were regulations. This was a legal, certified area, not some illegal fight club where anyone could die at any second. Three, Neptune had a double type advantage against the rock and ground type Onix. And four, her starter now had extra power behind him thanks to evolution.

"Bubble," she said, and even the bubble attack was stronger. The first wave was aimed upwards, creating a layer of translucent bubbles in the line of the Onix's sight to Neptune. The second one was aimed not at the body, swaying, but at the tail. When it was jerked up in surprise, Neptune avoided a rock throw attack narrowly and dove forwards, metal claw shining. After a swipe, he managed to bubble again while the Onix screeched at him.

The gym trainer had been wrong. With the type advantage and evolution under their belt, Neptune was strong enough to take down the Onix with a few hits without taking any damage himself. "Good job," was what she got from him. "But Roark won't be such a pushover."

Dawn resisted the urge to sniff snobbishly at him. Sore loser. Deciding to be the better person, she merely kept her face blank and moved on instead of saying anything to him. Before climbing the final steps, she dug in her bag for some snacks and water. Neptune snorted and made to go battle, but she insisted that he eat them. Knowing just how proud he was, that swagger was probably him pretending to be fine when his body was tired from the rapid metamorphosis it had just gone through.

She had, of course, asked if they should forfeit the gym match, but Neptune insisted. She made him eat every last bit of the food and dawdled, fumbling with her bag and going to the bathroom while he rested.

She earned a good five minutes, and finally decided that if they were going to go battle, they'd battle. If they won, great; if they lost, they learned new information.

At the top of the stairs, Roark gave her a thumbs up as he led her down to a large room with a relatively small field. There was no separate booth for a trainer to stand in, protected, or microphones to give orders into. Two Baltoy on both sides of the field spun idly, for shield-raising purposes. "I saw your battles," he said after the ref had stepped up to rattle out the rules for them. "Congratulations on your Piplup evolving. Let's see if you've got what it takes to deserve the Coal Badge."

In response, she grinned brightly. "Neptune," she told the Prinplup at her side. "You're up."

He swaggered onto the field, slow but arrogant. The Baltoy began to spin, glowing and humming in the background.

Roark tipped his mining helmet, just a bit, like it was a gentleman's hat. "Granville!" he tossed a ball onto the field, letting out a Geodude.

Dawn clapped her hands to let the sharp sound ring in the gym. "Start off with metal claw!"

Neptune jumped at him, the tips of his flippers glowing silver. He scratched at the Geodude's rocky surface. She bit her lip when she saw that it hadn't done as much damage as she would have liked. That was to be expected, she supposed, seeing that he had just evolved. Evolution could give a whole lot more power, but there was still change involved. A lot of change the body went through in the span of a few minutes. Neptune's evolution hadn't been as dramatically different as, say, a Feebas to a Milotic, but it had still been quite a change for his physical – and possibly mental – state.

Her doubts resurged. She could still back out now. Go back to training, maybe a day or so for Neptune to get used to his new form.

That was, if she could bend both hers and his pride to do so. And the doubt was pushed to the backseat by resurging determination. It wasn't gone, but she was ignoring it. After all, Neptune could still bubble things like crazy, and there was still their initial strategy, just as applicable as it had been back when he'd been a Piplup. Dawn had to try that, at the very least.

And so, for this battle, she would stick to that like a Shellos on its favourite berry.

"Set up with stealth rock!" Granville formed sharp wedges of stone and threw them up into the air, where they floated as if suspended by invisible strings. Neptune eyed them warily and kept away from them, but they didn't attack him.

It was familiar – she had seen that somewhere – but she couldn't place it. And she couldn't afford to not pay attention right now. "Long distance attack! Let's use bubble!"

Before Granville could use another move, Neptune had sent a massive amount of bubbles straight into his face. Most of them popped on contact, but a few flew past the rock Pokémon and landed on the rocky terrain, some even maintaining their round form as they stuck to the ground.

The double weakness, the same type advantage and the newly-acquired power from Neptune's new evolution still wasn't enough to counter the distance between them, or to take the Geodude down. Granville began to roll forwards, determined to continue fighting.

"Don't ease up on the bubble," Dawn ordered. In the end, their opponent was a Geodude. Despite their resilience, all one needed to do was to never let up on the pressure. If the Geodude wanted to come closer to face a more powerful bubble directly, that was fine by them. Let Granville shoot himself in his metaphorical foot. Thanks to practice, Neptune could keep the bubble going steadily for a minute if he needed to, without the force behind it decreasing.

That also let more bubbles stick to the ground. They were popping, but there were definitely still bubbles clinging to the field.

Before he could even finish rolling up to Neptune, Granville had fainted. The low special defense of his kind, as well as all the advantages they had on their side was enough.

"Good job," Roark said, returning the Geodude as the referee signed that the gym leader's Pokémon had fainted. "Then . . . Danforth!"

Danforth was an Onix. Unlike the other guy's, the rocks that made up its body were much smoother and rounder.

Roark's Danforth was a different matter. Polished and rounded, it looked much older than the gym trainer's Onix had been, and was a lot bigger as well.

Dawn couldn't give that huge rock snake more time to move than it already had. Onix, before they evolved into the slow and even sturdier Steelix, were pretty fast. Praying to Mespirit and Dialga that the water she had filled Neptune's Poké ball with more water just the other day from a pond near Jubilife would be enough for him, even after evolution, Dawn ordered him to use bubble.

"Rock throw!"

The boulder that Danforth through with a flick of his tail popped some of Neptune's attacks, but a good half of them still managed to hit Danforth. The rock sailed through the air and hit Neptune in his stomach. He squawked, but then pushed off the boulder and stood back up.

"Good boy," she muttered before raising her voice. As an earlier gym badge, Roark had deemed it enough to use a smaller field, so there were no mikes or stadiums. She just had to speak loudly to be heard. "Water spot, then bubble again, before he recovers!"

"Don't let them! Screech!"

Neptune didn't have to be told twice. He opened his beak and spat the attacks out in their respective order. The shriek was painful to hear, but it didn't do enough as the bubbles, flying out after the mist Neptune sprayed out to dampen the entire field, headed towards the Onix. The rocky snake backed up, right into some of the bubbles that had been stuck on the ground. Thanks to the water sport, it was reinforced with more water, and popped on contact when the Onix backed onto it.

Surprised at the attack, the Onix froze for the critical second, and the rest of Neptune's bubbles caught up to it. She felt the earth shake when the Onix fell, unconscious.

"Excellent," Roark returned Danforth, smiling. "And an interesting use of water sport, to strengthen bubbles left scattered around the field like mines. Easily predictable, but interesting."

"It's pretty simple," she admitted. The bubbles were visible to anyone who had functioning eyes, and it had only been because they'd been scattered behind the Onix that they'd been discounted.

That, and the Onix being so big. He had swept himself well into the range of a lot of those bubbles when he'd reared back. "We'll work on strategy as we get closer and stronger." When she had more to work with, when she had become more advanced herself. This was just the beginning, after all.

"A fine plan," he raised a hand to slightly adjust his helmet again. "But I'm afraid you'll have to work on it while retraining for a rematch in this gym, because my third Pokémon is going to overwhelm you. Go, Levi!"

Roark sent out a Pokémon she had only seen on the news. It was one of the fossil Pokémon revived from remains of ancient life forms by new technology, named . . . "Cranidos."

Great, she didn't know much about fossil Pokémon. An unfortunate mistake, sure, and hopefully one that wouldn't cost her.

"Correct." And here, Roark made his mistake. He decided to be a nice guy and tell her information she was lacking in.

Well, Dawn supposed that was part of the job, to educate trainers that would most likely neglect their education unless it was driven into them every other possible chance. And in the end, it was his mistake, not hers.

"And, in case you didn't know, Levi here is a pure rock type. Therefore, he lacks the double weakness to water that you've been happily taking advantage of so far."

"Just rock type?" Dawn repeated.

"Correct."

Whatever he had been expecting when he told her that, he probably had not expected her next action. "Neptune, return! Sekhmet, take over!"

Neptune was also a bit taken aback, but he decided that he could trust the girl enough to step down even if he had the advantage. The Shinx jumped onto the field, tail lashing here and there. She was ready to fight. "Let's do this!" Dawn said with a grin.

And then both she and the Shinx yelped, because the shards of rock from the stealth rock earlier on had come back to bite her in the butt by flying down to the ground and hurting Sekhmet.

_Now_ she remembered what stealth rock did. One of the many entry hazards, infamous for being a bird killer in tournaments. Flying types who could bypass any spikes set on the ground would be crushed in the air, possibly costing them a victory. Palmer's Dragonite didn't like those very much. "Sorry!" she called to Sekhmet, who was shaking her head and fur out. "I didn't know that was how it worked!"

Roark looked at the girl and tried to figure out what she was thinking. Water against rock – that made sense, and the use of water sport to make bubbles stay longer while on the ground was smart. Now she had switched a Pokémon into a battlefield with a trap that she hadn't understood when it had no type advantage.

She hadn't seemed like a rich girl with no idea of what she was doing back in the mines. Had he been mistaken? Was her last name just something she'd inherited?

But Dawn had a plan. A Plan _B_, in case Roark decided to use an exclusively rock type Pokémon. "No ground subtype!" she yelled to Sekhmet, who grinned despite the painful shower of rock shards earlier on. "Sekhmet, give it your all with a spark!"

It clicked to the gym leader, then, just what the girl had been aiming for. Of course – both Granville and Danforth had been dual rock and ground types. Electric attacks like spark wouldn't have done a thing for them, but for Levi, it was a completely different story.

Still, electric attacks weren't super-effective. If it came down to a power struggle, Levi was more than capable of meeting it head first – literally. "Meet it with headbutt!"

The two Pokémon charged. They met at the center, and clashed, throwing lightning and bits of rocks off the ground. Sekhmet's smaller stature had her more easily pushed back, but Levi cried out and shook a little as the sparks crawled up and down his body, not fading.

Paralysis. Speed cut by half, with a chance to prevent movement as the muscles in the body seized up and became immobile. Bad for nearly any Pokémon, but great for her as a challenger.

There had been two plans she had in mind. Dual typed Pokémon with ground and rock types were common enough, and would be guaranteed in use. The question was what to do when there was a mono-typed Pokémon present for her at the gym, or a rock and some other type.

Ground would make Sekhmet's electricity useless in battle, that she knew. But if there was any chance that the Shinx could fight in battle, Dawn wanted her to fight for the sake of getting a chance to paralyze the foe Pokémon.

Neptune's earlier water sport buffing up the bubbles lying on the ground had been just one benefit. Its true purpose had been to make the electricity in Sekhmet's spark attack more likely to paralyze her foe. It wasn't a soak attack, but it did make it easier to circulate the electricity and gave them an edge.

She was lucky. She should have done some more research on Roark and figured out just what specific Pokémon he used instead of his type specialty. If she had, then she would have seen that he used fossil Pokémon. She would have – should have – then further researched said fossil Pokémon until she knew more about it.

She hadn't. And she was lucky, to be getting away from it pretty well.

"Spark again."

Sekhmet hit him again, this time in the side, and Levi stumbled, looking dazed. One more hit, and he would be down.

The gym leader knew that. "Potion break!" Roark called to the referee. He sprayed his Cranidos over with the medicine from a purple bottle, giving him a pat on his head for his effort. "I'm sorry I can't use a full restore," he apologized to the dedicated Pokémon that had held off evolution just so he could help Roark in lower-levelled gym battles. "But this _is_ supposed to be a first-badge battle. Think you can bear the paralysis?"

Levi butted his knee lightly.

"That's a boy," Roark stepped back as his Pokémon re-entered the field.

Across the field, Dawn weighed her options. Sekhmet still looked healthy despite the headbutt and the stealth rock, but a critical hit could do anything from severely weakening to actually knocking her out. That, and she had no idea what other moves the Cranidos knew.

"Hit him with a spark!" she ordered. Sekhmet ran up, covering her body with electricity before hitting him again.

"Pursuit!"

Levi made to follow Sekhmet, but winced and stopped in his tracks. Dawn loved paralysis. "Spark, one more time!"

Sekhmet scurried to face the back of Levi while he was down. Bright sparks surrounded her body one last time as she threw it forward in an electric tackle. Levi cried out, fell onto his knees and stayed like that for a while, staring off at the rock walls of the gym.

Dawn was about to order another spark to finish him off when Roark stiffened. He held out the ball to return his Cranidos just as the fossil Pokémon fell over in a faint.

She had won. "We won," she said, stunned.

And then it sunk in. "We won! We won our first badge!" she let Neptune out of his ball as well and grabbed his flippers. "We won!" she tried to lift him in a hug but thought better of it when she realized he was more than half her height, and probably just as heavy.

"Well, this is embarrassing," Roark said mildly, readjusting his helmet. "I went and lost to a Pokémon trainer without a single badge . . . ."

Dawn stopped her celebrations. "Isn't that kind of your job?"

He sighed. "I get no respect. Well, that's just tough for me. You were strong, I was weak and that's all there is to it."

"_We_ were strong," Dawn corrected before going back to hugging Neptune and Sekhmet. She wailed a bit when Neptune, foregoing his pride for just this occasion, tackled her down in a hug. "You're _heavy_!" she screeched, but she was laughing.

Roark raised an eyebrow. So she was more connected to her Pokémon than he had expected. Well then, maybe it wasn't so bad losing to her on her first try. After all, she had shown herself capable of improvising despite an evolution directly prior to the match, and she hadn't been arrogant enough to attempt to sweep him with one Pokémon.

He cleared his throat to catch her attention. "According to league rules, I must now award you with a badge since you've beaten me in an official match."

Dawn eyed him warily. "But?"

"What but? There is no but to this. Here's the Coal Badge – congratulations."

She muttered under her breath – he was a troll, setting her up like that – but took the badge anyways. The Coal Badge was twice as big as her thumb, and looked like a simplified version of a mining cart filled to the brim. The lines shaping it were shining silver, but the coloured metal was a polished bole.

It felt good holding it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Here, take this too."

It was a TM. "Stealth rock? That move you used?"

Roark nodded. "Helpful in the very beginning of a battle to set up and hurt your opponents throughout the entire round whenever they switch out or bring in a new Pokémon."

Now that she remembered just what it was supposed to do, she could think of a few places where the TM could come in handy. She wouldn't forget what it did now, she hoped. "Thank you."

Roark smiled at her. "Just don't get overconfident. There are seven other gym leaders in Sinnoh, all of whom will be tougher than I was. Each badge will be harder and harder to earn."

"Doesn't that just make everything cheery," she said dryly.

Now Roark laughed. "Had to warn you," he said. "Good luck out there, Dawn – although you probably don't need it as much as others."

"Oh, thanks."

* * *

After a celebratory dinner out at a local diner, they were back at the Oreburgh center for the night. "Hope you don't mind dropping by to Twinleaf on the way," she began, but stopped at what she saw.

Neptune was lying face down on her bed, groaning slightly while Sekhmet walked back and top over his back. "Are you giving him a massage?" she asked.

The sounds she received were mostly affirmative.

Dawn decided to ask the receptionist about this. "If your Prinplup evolved recently, it may simply be a few sore muscles," the nurse at the counter explained. "It's like growth pains."

"Growth pains, huh?" Dawn couldn't say she had experienced many of those, given her shortness. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

The receptionist gave her a smile. "Well, from what you've told me, your Shinx is helping with that. _I_, personally, have never heard of a Shinx giving a massage to another Pokémon, but, well, I'm sure it's not the first. Still, try feeding him an oran berry or two in the morning. The breakfast bar should be stocked with fruit."

"Okay. Thank you."

When she came back, Neptune was now stretching his leg while Sekhmet slept, curled up on the dresser.

Maybe she had imagined the whole thing. Dawn put the letter for her mom in the pre-stamped envelope. Then, after digging out the papers the professor had given her, she went through the thick booklet until she found the information regarding Neptune. He was two years old – so he had experience, and that was why he had evolved so soon after joining her.

She snapped a picture of them with her Pokédex, wrote an email to Lyra in response to her message and went to sleep after an hour of studying.

* * *

AN: I forgot to mention, but pixiv's 清順（トンボ) has this awesome series based off the FRLG games with a hint of the anime and other games mixed in. It is so awesome and in Japanese but I read scanlations off a Korean blog. This amazing masterpiece has been a great source of inspiration, mostly for me to complete Titanium and make its universe as in-depth and connected as it is. I also got some ideas off of it, which I'll credit when they pop up. Check it out if you ever get the chance.

Also, for the record,_ I'm not very good at writing battles_. This is my attempt at trying to not do just "he bubbled and she sparked while Roark dawdled and did next to nothing", or just calling out names of moves by turn like the games would have us do. I am not a strategy-producing genius. The more advanced ones will be inspired by Smogon (but will be bland), and the less advanced ones will probably be more bland.


	6. An Edge of the Galaxy

A.S.107

July 6th

_Prof. R. has a surprising sense of humour._

* * *

"Is Dawn Steele here?" Barry asked the receptionist the first thing in the morning. Ditching Dawn had been an interesting experience. Initially, it had been liberating in a way because it was every person for themselves (Dawn had broken him and his dad of the habit of saying 'every man for himself'). No more did they have to stick together for safety; they were trainers now, responsible and capable.

Once the initial rush wore off, though, Barry had found that he didn't actually think hanging with Dawn was an obligation. No one made him do things he didn't want to do, and it had never been obligation making him slow down for Dawn to catch up with him. Dawn was his friend – that was why he spent so much time with her. Leaving her alone felt wrong, especially when he knew all-too well that she'd just be much slower without him there to egg her on. It felt like he was abandoning his sister.

Now that would be unbearable.

But he didn't want to have to go with her the entire way. He was a lone man, depending on no one to make his way in the world, just like his father had been. Dawn was his best friend, but he knew she'd end up mothering him. He couldn't do that if he wanted to catch up to his dad.

He could, he decided in the end, check on her constantly. With his speed it was more than possible to do that and make sure she was safe while spending time with her.

So, after catching a Ponyta and naming him Camarero, he had hightailed it back to Oreburgh to start checking on Dawn. By then, it had been around nine in the evening, and she didn't answer his messages so he assumed she was asleep.

The Jubilife nurse hadn't been too happy when he had asked her a lot of questions in the night, so he had been trying to avoid making the same mistake and risking the wrath of a stressed, nearly overworked nurse brought down on his head again in different cities.

Luckily for him, this nurse had just drunk her favourite cup of coffee. "Hmm," she said, typing something into the computer in front of her. "It says here that she just checked out five minutes ago."

"Okay thank you bye!" he shouted and ran out. Starling flew after him, and Champ loped as fast as he could before his trainer remembered him. "Sorry, dude," he apologized, picking up the turtle and running. Champ, near evolution, was heavy, but Barry still insisted on carrying him himself.

He managed to catch up to her in front of Oreburgh. "Hey! Dawn!"

She turned around, bag hanging from her shoulder. It was only then did he realize that he was still running.

Cue crash.

Thud!

"_Oww_ . . . ." they chorused, Dawn rubbing her back and Barry hopping on one leg, the pain in his knee flaring for a moment. Champ, luckily uninjured in the impact, snickered.

"Whoops," he said. "Dawn! You're leaving town already? Don't tell me . . ." his mouth split into a huge smile. "You got the gym badge!"

The pain of being knocked over was something she was far too used to, and her happiness at her victory came back fresh in her mind again. "Yeah!" she showed off her shining new badge.

"Awesome!" he did a little dance. "Looks like I was worried about you for nothing."

Dawn snorted a bit. "_You_ worry about _me_? That'll be the day."

"Meh," he stuck his tongue out. "Hey, so, I'm going to Eterna next! What about you?"

"We're doing the same," Dawn said. "I want to enter the beginner's tournament in Jubilife first, and Eterna's the closest gym after that."

"Nuh-uh," Barry corrected her gleefully. "Canalave is."

"Closest gym that we're ready to face," Dawn added to her words. "Canalave specializes in steel types, so I thought we'd head for Eterna – easier to face when we're still beginning and all."

That, and it was better for them to take advantage of the warmth summer provided to travel to northern regions of Sinnoh. If it didn't stay year-round, snow always came early and stacked up to the point where travel became difficult. It was much better, his father had said, to grab the badges from the higher cities like Eterna and Veilstone now, and then visit lower areas in autumn and winter. Both of them had also been advised against Snowpoint for an early badge, because the route there was too difficult for a new trainer with only a few Pokémon.

He'd come back to check on her, and she was fine, just fine. No one had to worry. "I better see you there soon," Barry said, confident that she could take care of herself. "Next stop – the Eterna gym badge! Ten seconds before I dash! Nine!"

"Since when did you get a countdown?" Dawn asked.

He thought for approximately a nanosecond. "You're right! Bah, who has _time_ to count?!" he ran off, charging headfirst into the Oreburgh Gate's cave.

Behind him, Dawn decided to take a more leisurely walk. "So Champ hasn't evolved yet," she said. "Well, Neptune, it looks like you're outgrowing everyone. Are you older than Champ? Maybe it's because you're more mature that you evolved so soon-"

Then her leisurely walk came to a dead stop as she screeched to a halt and clapped her hands together. "I forgot to ask Roark what being square meant!"

Neptune slapped a flipper to his head.

* * *

Lucas smiled when he checked his Pokédex. He had managed to tag and capture a sample of all the native species in the area, including even the elusive, constantly-teleporting Abra. "That was thanks to you," he told Charlotte, who blushed and chattered modestly. "No, really! If it weren't for you taunting him, I don't know how I would have caught that Abra."

Charlotte chattered a bit and moved onto his other shoulder, a complete shift in personality from the cackling Chimchar she'd been while using taunt on that psychic type. He patted her warm head. She was really an amazing little soul. It was like she could read his mind and know just when his left shoulder grew tired, or how much he wanted to catch Pokémon to fill out his Pokédex and strived to help him fulfil his goal. "Thank you," he said. She trusted him despite the fact that the two of them were no longer in a contained, controlled environment. He couldn't have been luckier with his first Pokémon.

"Well isn't that sweet," a voice sneered. Lucas looked up to see two men in odd uniforms approach him. Their clothes and hair – straight, style-less and identical cuts – reminded him of an army, but their slouches and dirty teeth told him that these were more of a gang or delinquents than anything.

Agent Looker's words came to his mind – words of warning and caution. Words that, at the time, hadn't sounded like they would ever really be useful for him.

Fate, apparently, was an ironic mistress. "A widdle twainah an' his pwecious Pokémon," one of the guys made a kissy face as he imitated a cartoon character's speaking style.

His partner laughed and Lucas backed up a bit, wary. He may have captured a few Pokémon, but his strongest remained Charlotte, who would most likely still be outmatched and outnumbered. "I don't want any trouble," he told them in the most placating voice he could pull up. He raised his hands up to show that they were empty and not bunched up in a threatening fist.

"We don't either," the man dropped his baby voice. "You! You're Professor Rowan's assistant, aren't you?"

Lucas eyed them warily. He hadn't done anything wrong – as far as he knew – and the professor wasn't the type to get into trouble with the likes of these.

This was exactly what Agent Looker had warned him about. "Yes," he answered carefully, hoping to catch a glimpse of the brown trench coat, hoping to catch a sight of the police, hoping for someone, anyone to come by.

The other guy gave him a very unpleasant smile. His teeth were uneven and stained. "We just wanna talk with your boss," he said. "See, we have something we need to tell the old man. And you're gonna help us."

"Then you can go and make an appointment with the lab in Sandgem," Lucas told them as politely as he could while trying to back away. "An assistant is available from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, and messages may be left overnight-"

"See, kid, we don't want to do that," the first one, the one Lucas thought was slightly smarter, lifted his hands in a 'what-can-you-do' gesture as he interrupted. "So we were hoping you could help us. Or, Dialga and Palkia forbid, something bad might happen to that cute little Chimchar. Or even worse, you."

They were threatening him. And not very subtly. "Look, I'm just a kid," he said, still trying to back away. Of all the times for there to be no one around him . . . .

Could he run fast enough?

"Exactly. So, what do you say, _kid_?"

"I . . ." he remembered the two kids that the professor had given Pokémon to. The other boy Barry, bright and energetic, ready to face the world. The girl Dawn, considerably more moderate than her friend but strong in a quieter kind of way, with fierce ambitions. Both of them came from impressive families, but they weren't riding on the tailcoats of their famous parents. There was something about them that told Lucas that the two of them would be great, and it wasn't just Professor Rowan approving of them.

Professor Rowan had seen it too. And, since the professor had given Lucas a Pokémon as well, could Professor Rowan have seen a possibility of greatness in Lucas?

What would those two have done?

Probably taught the punks a lesson for looking down at them. For _looking_ at them in the wrong way.

Lucas clenched his fist. He could be great, too. He _had_ to be great, if he wanted to become a better person – a successful person. "I can't help you," he said in what was hopefully a polite but firm voice.

They just sneered at him. "Then we'll have to use force," the second one said and reached for him with an outstretched hand. He stumbled back, and Charlotte squeaked in fear. She spat out an ember that singed the tips of his hair as it flew past his head. It didn't hit the hand reaching for him, but landed near their feet and made them hesitate.

Just for a split second. Nothing too long – it was, after all, simple instinct to stop when there was fire, to cautiously gauge the environment for more possible dangers.

Lucas didn't let any of that split second go to waste. He ran, shouting for Charlotte to grab on tighter. He screamed for help. He screamed that there was a fire – which there was. Looker the Interpol agent had told him that people were more likely to react when someone screamed 'fire' rather than anything else. What else had the man told him?

"Get back here, you little punk!" one of them screamed, and through the pounding of his feet and heart he heard their heavier feet beat the ground in a tempo faster than his.

Fear filled his veins. They would catch up to him. They were angry, and they wanted something that he probably couldn't give them. He wasn't sure what the two of them would do to him, but –

_Relax, Lucas. I've got you now._

A hand grabbed his shoulder, but it didn't belong to the men after him. Lucas looked just in time to see three yellow fingers on his shoulder before his vision flashed and changed to a slightly different setting. Dazed, he looked up to see the back of Professor Rowan, standing firm. They were only a few feet from where they had been, but it was much better. A broad, well-lit street rather than the dark alley he had been about to get cornered into.

Lucas turned his head to see the professor's Alakazam. "Thanks, Albert," he said shakily. The psychic Pokémon must have teleported him out of the two men's reach.

Albert was Professor Rowan's main method of transportation long distances in short spans of time, as the professor didn't like to fly to his destinations. While most ways of travel related to teleporting in areas excluding Pokémon Centers was restricted by League Wards and other Pokémon capable of disabling teleportation in, Professor Rowan had been granted special privileges for everything he had given to the Sinnoh region, as well as who he was.

It helped that Albert was a powerful psychic Pokémon. He had been a member of the Professor's main team from his Champion days, and Lucas had once seen him intimidate an entire herd of Mightyena into submission without so much as batting an eye.

Never mind about releasing all of the Pokémon he had just captured. He was going to keep the Abra. The sight of Albert's calm gaze in that moment was _inspiring_, to say the least.

_It was no problem, Lucas. Are you unharmed?_

"Yeah," he said, patting a slightly panicked Charlotte to calm her down. Somehow, repeating the motions over and over again, feeling the shudders going through her tiny warm body calmed him down as well. "Yeah, now we're good."

Now he and Charlotte were out of immediate danger.

But the men responsible weren't too unhappy. They now had what they had been after from the moment they had engaged with Lucas – an audience with the professor. "Professor Rowan," the first guy said in a mockingly polite voice. "Just the man we wanted to see."

* * *

Jubilife was bustling with people when she entered its boundaries. "Stay close," she warned Neptune and Sekhmet. "I don't want you separated or stolen."

"Excellent sentiments for a trainer."

"Gah!" she jumped. There, behind her, in the brown duster and the intense look, was Looker the globe-trotting Interpol agent. From the startled looks on both Neptune and Sekhmet's faces, they hadn't seen or heard him approach either. "You scared me!"

Looker gave her a severe look that was serious to the point of comedic. "Madam, I did no such thing. You overreacted."

Her lips twitched, partly at being called 'madam' – it sounded so _old_ – but mostly because he was pinning the blame on her, when it was all clearly his fault. "_No_, you came up to me unannounced and randomly said something -"

"I assure you, scaring you was not my intent."

That didn't change the fact that he had still shocked her, but she gave up. There was no point in arguing this. "So, did you find your shady people?" she asked instead, trying to change the conversation.

It worked. Looker shook his head. "There appears to be no shady people in Jubilife," he said. "Excluding the illegal salesmen of recreational drugs and stolen goods, of course, but I have already reported them to the local police."

"So you're not after shady salesmen selling stuff?"

"No," Looker stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. "Therefore, I shall have to take my investigation elsewhere. But, my friend, I suggest you remain vigilant for shady grown-ups!"

Dawn decided to not tell him that he was a 'shady grown-up' in her eyes. "I'll do that," she promised him instead.

Looker the Interpol guy nodded, and then melted back into the moving stream of people in the city. Soon she couldn't even tell where he was. "That guy's just weird," she sighed.

Neptune and Sekhmet, both recognizing him from pre-Prinplup days, nodded in agreement.

Her supplies were still well-stocked and both members of her team were in good health. "Maybe we can drop by home," Dawn suggested. "And there's a tournament in a few days, so we could participate in that. Should be good experience for all of us, practicing in official matches. We could head over and go over regulations now – we should have at least two more hours before the public arenas close.

"Unless," she added. "You're hungry."

Neptune gave her a 'meh' look, and Sekhmet shook her head. Just in case, she dropped by a vendor and bought three hot dogs. Neptune pecked at his and wrinkled his brow at the mustard, but Sekhmet scarfed it down. "You have a little ketchup," Dawn said, stifling her laughter at the sight of her battle-hungry Shinx with food on her fur like a little baby. "Around your mouth. Hold still."

She wiped it off with the napkin the stall owner had given her. "Kind of looks like blood," she noted. "Sekhmet, goddess of war, conqueror of Starly, ketchup-stained mouth."

Sekhmet butted her head against Dawn's knee, but it was more playful than anything. "I'll buy you another hot dog next time," she promised the Shinx. Neptune, after trying out different condiments, decided that the sweet and sour sauce made the tolerable hot dog a delicious meal.

There were a few public centers with arenas open for trainers seeking practice. They headed to the nearest one, which was near the Jubilife TV Station. A bit more up north past the broadcasting building and they were at the entrance of the city facing Route 204, where there seemed to be a standoff going on. Neptune straightened a bit and gestured frantically at the group of people. "Isn't that the professor?" she asked him, recognizing the beard even from the distance. There was also a red hat-wearing head shaped like bread next to him, and a yellow Pokémon she recognized as an Alakazam. "And Lucas too, right?"

They were being confronted – for the lack of a better word – by two guys in weird silver clothes and hair. The two had hair the colour of sick teal, and as if that wasn't bad enough, had bowl cuts. "They look like astronauts," she muttered as they jogged up to the professor. "Or aliens. Like the ones from cheap budget movies."

"Now, now, now, now, now!" one of the mystery guys said as they approached. "Professor Rowan, you must comply!"

"At the risk of sounding clichéd, I refuse to hand over my research to the likes of you. Especially 'for free', as you so eloquently put it," the professor's deep voice made the statement sound all the more dry and sarcastic. Behind him, the Alakazam idly twirled the spoons in its hands, a gesture mirrored with Poké balls by the two facing them. Lucas looked tense and worried, and the Chimchar on his shoulder looked scared.

Two against two. She could see what this was – two sleazy shady guys trying to coerce people into doing what they wanted.

Well, cowards never fared well against larger numbers, and seeing how these two were sleazy, she would bet that they were cowards. "Hey, what's going on here?" she demanded with as much bravado as she could muster up, stepping over in the side closer to the professor and Lucas to show that her support would lie with them. "Any trouble, professor? Lucas?"

The two men eyed Dawn, appraising her for any threats she might pose, but didn't back away. So her shortness and youth still negated what threat an extra number would do. Shame. For them, that was, because she would totally make them regret underestimating her.

"Now now," the guy that had been speaking said. "We don't want any trouble, but if you don't comply, well, your assistant may go through quite a painful time."

The professor pointedly ignored him. "Ah, Dawn," he said to her as if his assistant hadn't just been threatened. "How is your Pokédex progressing?"

Both she and Lucas nearly did a double take. Of all the things to ask in the current situation –

When the professor gave her a look that told her to play along, she caught onto it. "Umm, well, I only caught one," she cringed at the disappointed look the professor gave her. Weren't they only making small talk to annoy and distract the weirdoes? "But! I did _see_ a lot of Pokémon while battling, and Neptune evolved into a Prinplup! I promise I kept close records of them both. Oh, and I challenged the gym and saw a Cranidos, so I picked up some information off there."

She was babbling. She tried to slow down her tongue from flapping unnecessarily.

"The gym, you say?" he asked her, listening _and_ keeping an eye on the two weirdoes, both of whom were steaming at being ignored. Multitasking like a _boss_. "And did you win?"

Dawn puffed out her chest, just a bit. "Yes we did, sir!"

"And I've only given you your first Pokémon what, two weeks ago . . . I am impressed on your progress. Perhaps being a trainer is like a second nature to you."

She beamed at the compliment.

The weird man who had been speaking took a deep breath before sighing theatrically. "Oh, Professor of Pokémon!" he cried out. "Why must you be so difficult?"

"Because you have no business with me," he replied flatly, jerking his head slightly at her. She got the message and stood behind him, although both Neptune and Sekhmet looked ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"We are _speaking_ to you on business. _This_," Weirdo Number One gestured extensively at the empty air, conveying nothing, "is work for us. What we're saying is – we _demand_ you comply with our demands."

"Yes, I understood what you were saying the _first_ time you said it," the professor said rather edgily.

"Then you should-"

Lucas braced himself when he saw the professor take a sharp intake of breath. "Quiet, you lot!" the professor snapped, patience apparently all used up now. Lucas relaxed – the outburst hadn't been as loud as his roar. "Why must you be such a nuisance? Let me list some lessons you still need to learn, since obviously the two of you combined lack a single brain in total."

"Oh_, burn_," Dawn _had_ to add that. She just did.

The professor ignored her, but she didn't hold him to that. He was a bit busy burning them. "_One_, don't loiter around for no good reason. _Two_, don't interrupt others while they are attempting to converse about matters more important than your useless lives. _Three_, if you don't get your way, don't raise your voice in a pathetic attempt at intimidation. _Four_, don't think you've grown strong just because you happen to be in a group. And _five_!"

Professor Rowan's voice had been growing steadily with each lesson that lashed out at the two like whips, and by now the two were cowering slightly. _His_ voice rising, obviously, was not a pathetic attempt at intimidation.

Dawn expected something about showing respect. Evidently, these two men had forgotten that the white-haired man with the thick beard in front of them had been Champion once – if they hadn't, then they had wrongly assumed that he was no longer a threat, or that they could take him easily. She expected him to show that he was still capable of being a very dangerous threat, or something along that line. That even if he had retired from his position, even if he had donned a lab coat instead of a champion's mantle, even if his Elite Four family was ragged and missing a member, he was still strong.

Dawn supposed, in hindsight later on, that she had expected him to be too dramatic and personal. Of course he wouldn't use himself as an example. Those were memories to be treasured and kept close to the heart, or personal in nature at the very least. He had no reason or desire to share them with two scumbags who didn't have the brains and the sensibility to treat him respect, all for the sake of teaching them a lesson.

And he had a better fifth reason, anyways. His next words blew everything out of the metaphorical water.

"_What_ is with those _outlandish_ outfits you misfits call _clothes_?! Palkia," he shook his head in disgust. "And you call yourselves _adults_ while dressed so ridiculously?"

Startled at the fact that the stoic professor was apparently a member of the fashion police, Dawn let out a hysterical burst of laughter. Lucas caught the giggle Burmy as well and soon the two of them were laughing.

The laughter must have done a lot to hurt their ego because the two of them coloured and straightened themselves in an attempt to be intimidating. One of them tried to speak, but the professor had gone back to ignoring them to face his two field assistants. "You kids," he said in a considerably softer, but still very audible, clear and pointed voice. "Don't grow up to be like these sorry specimens."

"Yes sir!" Dawn chirped, and was echoed by a now-smiling Lucas.

The two spacemen had tamato-red faces now. "Eeeh!" the one that hadn't spoken exclaimed loudly. Obviously he hadn't paid much attention to lesson number three. "You had to make this personal!"

His partner remained a bit cooler-headed. "You have forced our hand into making a show of force," he announced dramatically.

"I doubt you have enough force to lift a baby's pacifier," the professor said scornfully.

The cooler-headed guy growled. "We will make you regret insulting Team Galactic."

Dawn snickered a bit at the name, and after a bit Lucas joined in. Even the professor's beard tugged a bit as he smiled. "You kids," he said, catching their attention. "Give these thugs a lesson in civility, please."

_Nathaniel, I could take them,_ the Alakazam offered thoughtfully, the spoons bending and straightening without anything visible forcing their change in shape as a dreamy expression came over his intelligent face.

"You could easily do so," the professor agreed as he stepped back. "But it would show these sorry excuses of adults just how weak and pathetic they are if two children could take them on easily."

The Alakazam shrugged his bony shoulders in agreement and joined him on the sidelines. Despite the casual way he had stepped back, though, his eyes were shining keenly, watching over them all. One flash of a future caused by the wrong choice or a threat, and he would get the kids out to deal with the menace himself.

Lucas slid over to her, Charlotte in his arms. "Join me in battle against these guys?" he asked, feeling a lot more confident. The professor thought that the two of them could handle these weird men easily by themselves. If the professor believed in them, then Lucas felt that he could believe in himself.

"You got it. Neptune!"

"Charlotte!"

Neptune was ready with a swagger. Charlotte, picking up confidence from Lucas, was determined.

The grunts saw a Pokémon battle with two kids. They must have figured that it would be easy to defeat them.

"I'll block their sight," Dawn muttered to Lucas under her breath. "Have Charlotte hit them while they're flailing."

Lucas nodded. He didn't seem like a full-time battling trainer, but he was smart. He saw where she was going and smoothly went along with her efforts.

The men dressed like space cosplayers were in for a surprise, if they underestimated them. Neptune bubbled the Stunky and Glameow sent out, obscuring their view. He couldn't exactly use water sport while he was battling with Charlotte, but the bubbles were doing their jobs just fine.

While the two tried to claw away the hindrance to sight, taking damage as they did so, Charlotte shot precise embers at the Glameow as it tried to come through the bubbles, aiming at the face. The cat shrieked as it was burnt, and rolled on the asphalt in an attempt to get it out, ignoring its trainer's orders. "Take out the Stunky!" she called to Lucas.

He gave a nod. "Right!"

Neptune's pound and Charlotte's scratch instantly KO'd the Stunky, and the remaining bubbles dealt away with the burned Glameow.

One of the men grabbed the other. "We lost to two kids!" he hissed loudly.

"Shut up!" his partner hissed back before turning to them as they recalled their fainted Pokémon. "You leave us no option," he said, salvaging what little pride he had left. "We will retreat for now, because Team Galactic is belligerent to all."

"That's 'benevolent', fool," Professor Rowan corrected.

The Team Galactic member glowered at him, but didn't dare do anything else. Not when Neptune and Charlotte were still very much ready to attack, and certainly not when Sekhmet and the Alakazam stood at standby. Instead, they ran off up north.

"And good riddance," the professor muttered. "That lot, calling themselves Team Galactic and making fools of themselves . . . ."

"What were they after?" she asked him.

Professor Rowan sighed. "Information. When Pokémon evolve, they seem to release a strange type of energy."

Remembering Neptune glowing like a supernova, she nodded.

"I believe that this energy is a mystic force, a power far beyond our control with what we have now. However," he continued. "I have taken it upon myself to research everything possible about this energy. But this Team Galactic . . . they were demanding that I hand over every research I have made on this phenomenon. It seems that they, too, are studying the potential that power may have, wanting to harness it somehow."

"And it's a bad thing they get this information because . . . ."

He gave her a very tiny smile, just visible through the beard and in the wrinkles in the skin around the eye. "Because there is no way on this good earth that anyone dressed like that is sensible in their mind."

Dawn laughed. So the professor, gruff and scary at times, had an awesome sense of humour.

"Sir, I . . . ." Lucas fidgeted when Dawn quieted down. "I'm sorry that I couldn't fend them off myself, sir." On the ground, Charlotte hung her head in shame.

The professor simply patted his shoulder. "You did just fine, Lucas. Thanks to you – and Dawn – nothing came out of that situation. I appreciate both your support, and I'm more relieved that you weren't hurt."

She offered Lucas a high-five. He took it, and gave her a hesitant smile that was far less awkward than any from before.

"Incidentally, Dawn," the professor moved on, "kudos to your battling skills. You seem to be quite talented as a trainer. It's only been, what, two weeks since you started out, and you've already won your first badge."

"Thank you, sir," she ducked her head. "But it's really thanks to Neptune and Sekhmet here. They get along great with me. If it weren't for that, we wouldn't be half as great."

"That's an excellent mindset. Never lose it." Professor Rowan coughed into a fist and nodded his approval. "I wish you luck upon your journey. Lucas, I do believe we were about to head back to Sandgem before those plebeians wasted our time."

Lucas gave her a wave that she returned, and the two grabbed onto the Alakazam's extended hands before they were teleported out of sight.

* * *

AN: I love Professor Rowan. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's just my Sinnoh favouritism, but whatever the reason I love him so much.

A friend and I noticed this the other day. There's one way to judge whether Prof. R or Professor Oak is the better professor - look at their students. Elm VS Sycamore. I think the answer's obvious.


	7. Shining Red on Flowers

A.S.107

July 10th

_I ran into T.G. again today. What exactly are they up to?_

* * *

There might not have been public Champions – the _Champion_ Champion, that was, the one that was strong enough to pass Victory Road's trial and defeat the Elite Four – but there were still tournaments that were public. Much like most regions with a League system, the League-run tournament ranks were nicknamed after types of Poké balls. Poké Ball tournaments were for the beginners, the ones with one to three badges, called 'third tier' officially. Trainers with four to seven badges were eligible for the Super Ball tournaments, officially the second tier, referred to as 'Junior' ranks. Eight and more badges won the trainer the right to enter the first tier Ultra Ball tournaments – the senior or 'Elite' rank.

Poké Ball tournaments were held frequently in cities, once every two months in larger settlements and three for small. Great Ball had a bit more time in between, at an average of four a year for each city, and Ultra Balls were biannual to annual.

Depending on the region, the locals called them by a nickname. In Johto, where Lyra lived, the more famous tournaments were nicknamed after apricorn balls in honour of the master craftsman Kurt, one of Johto's living treasures. Unova named theirs differently, going by titles such as Monster, Super and Hyper balls.

Then there were tournaments that weren't run by the League, sponsored and held privately, were 'unrestricted' – anyone could enter, whether the trainer had one or ten badges. Those were held far more frequently, and while they counted for less in terms of trainer credits, they were still immensely popular, and unofficially ranked first, second or third tiers, depending on their average difficulty.

In tournaments, League-run or private, more serious trainers got together and pitted their hard-worked Pokémon against each other, testing out strategies and picking out flaws they had missed in the blueprints. Depending on how well they had performed and how far the trainer managed to go, points were added to the trainer's account, points that spoke for their history worked as a resume and a reputation. It was a prestige thing, but it also helped to judge just how good of a trainer one was.

There were other incentives as well – sponsors and prizes – but it also served as a way to make skilled trainers into local celebrities. They were heralded as the Champion of 'insert-name-here' tournaments, and then the title was simplified as 'Champion'. The meaning of the word was being forgotten. The Champion – the Champion of Sinnoh – was losing the power attributed to the title.

In the case of the Jubilife Poké Ball Tournament, there was a minimum limit of two Pokémon. Dawn registered, let her Pokémon get healed up as a precaution and waited until the number she had been assigned – thirty-six – was called.

It wasn't a hard tournament. Most of the people were around the one-badge level, using local Pokémon like Budew, Starly, Kricketot and Bidoof. She saw a Dustox being used, but that had been in a different match, and the bug was knocked out with a lucky critical hit, making its trainer lose.

Dawn got through them without much trouble. She only lost in the finals against an older trainer, an aroma lady with a Budew and a Cherubi. She had sent out Neptune, wanting to keep Sekhmet back – she had evolved into a Luxio in the semi-finals in a battle against a girl with two evil Pachirisu twins – and ordered peck.

It had been super-effective, but not enough to knock out the small bud Pokémon. To make matters worse, Neptune had been pricked by its poison point, making it far too easy for the Budew to absorb off energy from her starter while he withered away.

Sekhmet had done well after Neptune had fainted. She had managed to charge and spark down the Budew despite the ineffectiveness and avoided the poison point altogether.

The Cherubi, sent after, had begun by making sure there was a leech seed in Sekhmet before tripping her up with grass knot. Her newly gained bulk was heavier than the form she had been used to, and that combined with her not being used to her body as a Luxio had been enough to knock Sekhmet out, giving the win – and the tournament – to her opponent.

Overall, it hadn't been too bad of an experience for her first tournament. Sekhmet had evolved, and she had won the second place title. The consolation prize – a goodie bag filled with a few Pokémon vitamins, coupons for local establishments and a TM for bullet seed – and the addition of points to her trainer's account would probably end up helping her in the long run. If there was one thing her mother had drilled into her, it was that whatever she did, Dawn was to always have some sort of history in actively engaging with the interest. If she was to follow her mom and coordinate, she had better have been in mini contests. If she wanted to be a researcher, fine, she should volunteer at the school or sign up as an assistant at the lab.

If she wanted to be a trainer? The best way to build up credentials was to get badges and win tournaments. That was how trainers earned sponsors, fame and money faster than simply beating up everyone they ran into. Sure, the Steele family would support her after she won her sixth badge as they did for all the family's trainers, but until then, and even with, she should make a name under her own right.

Dawn healed up her Pokémon, thanked them and then took them out for a treat. Not hot dogs this time, but a restaurant where a prize coupon could be redeemed for a two-in-one dinner special that was large enough to fully feed all three of them.

"We'll do better next time," she said to the two of them, and it was a promise.

* * *

Sekhmet tossed her newly-grown mane for the umpteenth time. "My evolution's so much cooler than yours," she said smugly to Neptune.

Those were fighting words – or, they would have been had he not been too tired to care. As it was, he just laid on the bed face down. It had been a nice day of battling, he was full and now he was drowsy. "You keep telling yourself that," he mumbled.

Sekhmet shot an annoyed look at him and stepped on his back. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Get off, you're heavy."

She was tempted to spark the water bird, but refrained from it. Dawn had told her to save her anger and irritation and direct it towards her battles. This was pretty good irritation and anger right here. The next battle she had, she'd just remember this scene and then spark everything out. Yeah. That sounded like a good plan.

But just to teach Neptune a lesson, she charged up before letting a tiny bit of the electricity run through the paw she still had on his back. "Hey!" he protested, but by then she had slinked off of him, grin wide on her face.

Electricity ruled.

* * *

Floaroma was a quaint little town, even more so than Twinleaf, and that was saying a lot. It was the kind of town where people smiled even when they didn't know who the person across the street was; where locals handed out homemade goodies to each other for no particular reason just because they could and because they were in a baking mood. It was essentially a town where everyone was grateful for everything in the truly genuine, from-the-heart way. Grandmothers knitted sweaters that their offspring actually wore without being forced to and had houses bursting with the fragrance of flowers. Kids grew up healthy and friendly and a jar of honey solved every problem.

And in the morning of the day after arriving, she saw this in full effect.

"Nice place," Dawn said as someone gave her a little souvenir – a technical machine for pluck – for coming to Floaroma Town. Being the hoarder she was, she placed it into the section of her bag deemed for TMs. As someone from a small, friendly town herself, she could appreciate this kind of thing.

Sekhmet sneezed as they walked into town. The town had no asphalt anywhere – it was all flowers, or grass, or a few worn dirt paths in between fields. The perfume of summer blossoms where everywhere, hanging over everything like the blue of the day's sky. It was like a scene out of a movie. Several scenes from several movies, as the town was a popular place to film at.

"You're not allergic to flowers, are you?" Dawn asked her newly evolved Luxio. It was the fourth day since the tournament, and now Sekhmet was used to her new body.

She only sniffed, pointedly keeping her nose away from the blooms.

After picking up some supplies at the mart – no one inside was lacking a smile, she noticed – they dropped by the Pick a Peck of Colours Flower Shop. Dawn wondered how a flower shop survived in a town that seemed to be made of flowers, but it turned out they did more than just sell flowers. They also held high tea sessions – hugely popular and had to be booked in advance – grew berries and flowers too delicate to survive out in the wild and made decorations using the abundance of flowers in Floaroma.

"Although," one of the ladies there said. "Even if we _did_ only sell flowers, the town would probably buy some just to help us get by."

Dawn bought some flower accessories and three cupcakes, guaranteed to be safe for both human and Pokémon consumption. The clerk smiled at her and chirped out a perky "Thank you!"

The people were definitely relaxed and friendly. The local tournament – the Heal Ball Cup – was only for trainers with four to seven badges, meaning she couldn't enter, although she could watch and learn some strategies. It wasn't until the afternoon, though, leaving her with free time.

One girl suggested heading over to either Route 205 or Valley Windworks to train. "Both are nice," she said, "although, seeing that you've already gotten a water type and an electric type, going to Route 205 is probably going to be better and less time consuming. Unless, of course, you wanted to train as much as possible, in which case, hit them both."

It was nice of her to inform her. Taking her advice, they headed out of town after dropping off a postcard for her mom as they munched on their cupcakes. Just sweet enough without going overboard. Her mother couldn't have done better. But then again, cupcakes had never been something her mom was good at making anyways. Muffins were more up her alley. "I'm going back for another one the next time I come here," Dawn swore as she threw the cupcake wrapper into a trash can nearby.

"Excuse me!"

Dawn looked up. A little girl – shorter than even her, which was quite the feat – ran up to her. The girl was grubby, with her clothes stained and hair messy. She looked like she was about to cry. "Are you a-a trainer?" she hiccoughed.

"Yes."

That broke the dam for her. The little girl's eyes welled up like twin water spouts turned on fully, with both hot and cold water taps turned to the max. "_Help_!"

"Gah! Um, with what?"

The girl gulped several breaths of air and rubbed at her eyes. Dawn saw the area around her eyes were red, and not just from the rubbing. She had been _crying_. _Before_ this. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I-I," a tear fell down her face. "I just wanna see my papa!" she shrieked.

* * *

The girl's name was Emily Borden, and her father worked as the head researcher and administrator for the Valley Windworks where clean wind energy was harvested. She lived there with him, because her mother had died a few years ago and her father had decided to take on a higher-ranking job to better support his only living family.

Recently, however, a bunch of people dressed like spacemen – her exact words – had barged in, kicked Emily out but kept her father to do something. The trainers in town were occupied with the Heal Ball Cup – now ongoing – and the local police didn't think it was a big deal. The local cops, actually, were more interested in the Heal Ball Cup.

Half of the story had been from the girl's mouth. The other half had been from the manager at the Pick a Peck of Colours Flower Shop, a grandmotherly lady who knew Emily. Her help made it a lot easier for Dawn to make sense of the story being told to her.

The girl must have been exhausted, because as soon as she had spilt her story after being brought into the flower shop by Dawn she had fallen asleep.

"Can you take care of her?" she asked the clerk.

"Of course!" the woman draped a homemade quilt over Emily's sleeping shoulders. Like the police – a force of ten men with a little to a lot of flab around their guts – she didn't really believe that there was anything wrong at the Windworks, although she was worried at the state Emily was in. "But where will you be going - ?"

The bell jingled as the door shut, and Dawn was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't forgotten to pay for the tea, though. The crumpled bills lay on the table next to the half-full teacup that she hadn't finished.

* * *

A bunch of people dressed like spacemen storming a place that collected energy?

There couldn't be more than two groups of weirdoes like that in the Sinnoh region at the same time. It had to be the same morons who had tried to threaten Lucas and Professor Rowan back in Jubilife. Team Galactic, if she remembered correctly.

On the way to the Windworks, she saw a few of the people in the odd clothes and hairdo loitering around Route 205. So they _were_ here.

But her problem was the people in the Windworks right now. "Hey!" she shouted at the person in the same colours in front of the building. "Yeah, you!"

The grunt, given guard duty and bored out of his mind, saw a rather short girl storming up to him with blue eyes like flint. "Me what?"

"Move!" and she was about to march past him, just like that.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. "Hey, watch it, brat!"

He raised a hand as if to hit her across her face, but then Sekhmet was out, snarling and sparking, with Neptune and a shining metal claw ready to go right behind her. He took a step back. "No one can go in if they're not a part of Team Galactic," he said, keeping an eye on her Pokémon. They looked tough.

"Just watch me," she snapped when he extended an arm across the door to block her way.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" he said. "You'll have to battle me first!" After all, his foe was a little girl who didn't look that old. She couldn't possibly have the right wits to properly guide her Pokémon in battle. And then his age would kick in and he would win by sheer experience.

"I don't even have time for this," she grumbled as he sent out a Glameow. "Neptune, let's use your new move!"

Sekhmet hadn't been the only one to gain something from the battle with the twin electric squirrels of pure identical evil. Her starter stepped forwards and shot a concentrated beam of bubbles. Unlike bubble, bubble beam was focused and hit much harder. The growl the cat tried to use did nothing to stop it from being knocked out. "Like I'm supposed to win with a Pokémon like this," he muttered as he withdrew the Glameow.

Dawn was about to charge past him again when a fist flew her way. Sheer luck and shortness saved her from getting a black eye as she flinched backwards. He missed, but took advantage of her pause to dart inside the Windworks.

A dull, heavy thunk from the inside could be heard. She fumed in anger.

* * *

Back when she had been eleven years old, her school had participated with an exchange program with a sister school in Johto's New Bark town. A handful of kids their age had come to stay for a week, sleeping at sponsor family's houses and attending the sister school, experiencing life in Sinnoh.

Dawn's family had been one of the sponsors. The exchange student had been a bright, brown-haired girl named Lyra Sterling.

Until then, Dawn hadn't had very many girl friends. Part of that was because her best friend in the whole world had been Barry, who took up most of her attention with his hyperactive personality, but another part of that had been because she found it hard to relate to the girls in the area. Most of them thought that she was so lucky for being her mother's daughter, and/or for being a Steele.

They thought she would make a great coordinator. No, not just thought. They _expected_ her to make a great coordinator like her mother simply because they were related, they _expected_ her to be a girly girl and they _expected_ her to not be a trainer who battled.

Until then, she had preferred Barry's company to any girl friend. She tended to hold herself off from them, not giving them a chance to get in so they could tell her to be a coordinator.

Until she met Lyra.

Lyra had been politely impressed upon meeting Johanna – a model guest, she had done her research on her host's family, including the prestigious and rich Steele family of Sinnoh – but she hadn't fawned or seen them with expectations.

It was then that Dawn had let her in, and the connection had been practically instantaneous. They had an incredible lot in common, in personality if not in appearance. They both wanted to be a trainer, they both lived in small towns, they both liked watching crime genre even if they weren't really supposed to, they both didn't like math . . . .

And they were both ambitious. Lyra aimed to win all her badges in a year's time, just like the prodigious Blue and Red of Kanto had done the year before in the Seventeenth Kanto Championships, before becoming the Champion of Johto herself. _Then_ she wanted to go over to Kanto and become the first Indigo Champion – a dual champion of Kanto and Johto – from the Johto region.

Dawn wanted to become the Champion of Sinnoh. It wasn't as grandiose as dual champion, but Sinnoh didn't offer citizenships for two regions at birth. And, with the work she had cut out for her – to pull out and destroy the fear that had taken root in the world after 11/9 – it was high enough of a goal. More importantly, it was her goal – what she wanted – and that was enough.

After a week, the students from New Bark had gone back, but Dawn and Lyra had kept in touch, through instant messaging and emails, as well as the occasional video chat.

Lyra had left to go on her journey in early spring. She had told Dawn about a lot of things, such as the rivals she had picked up, the Pokémon she had caught, the battles she had had . . . .

And the people she had run into.

It was even in the news. Team Rocket, a criminal organization taken down three years ago, had been stirring again in the Kanto and Johto region. Lyra and her friends had fought them over and over again, beating them easily. Something she seemed to be doing herself, now.

It wasn't rivalry, of that Dawn was certain. Nor was it some kind of twisted envy or copying Lyra by taking down local thugs. Lyra didn't do this to show off. She did this because she believed that Team Rocket needed to be faced instead of feared or swept under the rug like a sordid affair. A part of it may have been the fact that she wanted to prove Johto could produce child geniuses like Kanto had, a few years back, but the majority of her friend's reasoning came from the wish to protect her home. That was the duty of a Champion.

And, well, there was a reason why the two of them were good friends.

But right now she had nothing to go on. It was a low chance, but maybe Emily had a key to the Windworks?

Dawn returned to the flower shop.

* * *

Back in Floaroma Town, everyone had heard about Emily. Currently, berry pies, hot chocolate, stuffed animals and all sorts of comfort food were filling the flower shop.

The girl still remained absolutely miserable. No one had the intention of going to the Windworks, even after Dawn explained what had happened while she was gone. Rather, they seemed too frightened to.

Dawn briefly wondered if she could get away with knocking the door down – Emily had no spare key to the Windworks – when she overheard one of the people there talking. By now the unease had spread – despite being an odd man, Mr. Borden had been a friendly person when spoken to, and Emily was a darling child. It didn't seem like there was a lie being told by the young girl, and no one could get in contact with Mr. Borden. "Spacemen, huh? There were some in the meadow up north, too."

"Wait!"

Once she heard what was going on up north, she was out of the shop like a bullet, running with Sekhmet and Neptune until they reached the wooden sign that pronounced the area as 'Floaroma Meadow'. The only thing setting the meadow apart from the town seemed to be the lack of houses.

"Hand over the honey! Team Galactic requires mass amounts of honey to lure Pokémon for the greater good!"

"I think we're in the right spot," she said.

Lo and behold, two men in Galactic colours were ganging up on an old man who had a bleeding nose. Judging from the crookedness of said nose, it looked like it was broken. "Hey!"

They were cowards, of course. "Crap, it's a witness," one of them muttered. "What do we do?"

"Whaddaya think, moron?" the other one snapped. "We can't have the brat run off for help."

"I _am_ the help," she snapped right back, resisting the urge to add 'moron'. The sheriff, along with his men, was at the tournament watching the battles. "Where's the key to the Windworks?"

They exchanged looks. "So she knows about that, too."

That apparently made her a threat in whatever they were doing. "We need to take her down."

They were cowards. They took the solution of battling her separately in an attempt to wear her down.

Unfortunately for them, that plan was foiled rather nicely by Neptune and Sekhmet's double teaming. Neptune bubble beamed the first guy's Stunky away easily, and the two Zubat belonging to the second grunt didn't last against Sekhmet's spark barrage, empowered by the misty water sport.

"This brat's tough!"

Dawn didn't much care. "Where are the _keys_?!"

She must have scared them somehow, even with her short height, because they tossed her a metal key before running away like the Houndoom of hell were after them. "Are you alright, sir?" she asked the broken-nosed guy when they were gone out of sight.

"Y-yeah," he said shakily. "T-thank you."

"No problem."

* * *

After dropping off the poor guy – who turned out to be the honey merchant with the best goods around these parts – off at the flower shop as well, she ran back to the Windworks, stopping only to fill Neptune's ball with water. "Ready?" she asked her Pokémon before she unlocked the door and barged in.

The grunt from earlier on, the one with the Glameow, had been sitting in a lawn chair and reading a fashion magazine with a Unovan model on the glossy cover. At the sight of her, his eyes widened and he toppled over rather comically. "What the-"

She'd seen too much of him, really. "_Move_!"

This time, he listened to her and let her by before fumbling for the communications device. "Commander Mars! We have a problem! Code, um, code yellow!"

There was a slight crackle on the other end_. "Are you telling me that we have wild Pokémon breaking into the equipment?"_ a deceptively girly voice asked, and he cringed as he realized his mix-up.

"N-no ma'am! Um, we have an intruder! A short girl, white hat, red coat, with at least a Luxio and a Prinplup!"

_"Is that so?"_ the girlish voice hummed. _"Well, in that case, I suppose I'll just have everyone else deal with her. After she is dealt with, we'll have to discuss at _great lengths_ just why you couldn't keep _one_ girl out of an impregnable fortress."_

"Y-yes ma'am."

Further in, Dawn and her Pokémon were storming through every grunt that got in her way. "I don't have time for this!" she snapped after they beat what felt like the tenth grunt and his not very well trained Pokémon.

"Is that so?"

Dawn turned around to see a red-haired lady in the odd white and gray clothes of Team Galactic, standing in a section she hadn't noticed before. Behind her were two men, both in white lab coats. The older one looked like he was where he should have been, but the younger one looked harassed.

But Dawn's main focus was on the woman. She didn't have the bowl-cut, and her dress was different from other female members so far. "Who are you?" she demanded, while making sure that her back was to a wall. She could see all sides from where attacks could come from like this, which meant that a grunt couldn't simply grab her from behind.

The woman tossed her red bob. "I am Mars, one of Team Galactic's three -"

The old man fake-coughed. She broke off in her introduction to glare at him. "_Four_ commanders," she finished, sounding particularly venomous.

"So you _are_ a member of Team Galactic," Dawn said. Commander. It was old terminology, but she was probably high-ranking. This wasn't a nest of grunts she was taking on. She had to play this perfectly.

With all the control of a child raised to behave perfectly under the limelight shone on her famous mother and family, Dawn presented a calm but confident poker face. "Why are you doing this? Why are you going around, bullying innocent people and keeping a little girl who didn't do anything from her home and father?"

The younger man's head practically whiplashed in her direction, gaunt eyes wide. "Emily," he said hoarsely. He must have been her father.

Mars ignored him, as well as the emotional appeal she had been trying to make. "We've been trying to create a world that's better than this one," she said. "But people have shown very little understanding about what we do."

"Bully innocent people?" Dawn offered, trying to tug at heartstrings.

The redhead shot her a pitying look. "You don't understand either. It's a little saddening . . ."

"I don't care," Dawn interrupted. The woman wouldn't react to empathy. Time to show just who the 'Queen Vespiquen' was. "Leave this place, and leave the people here alone. They haven't done anything to deserve what you're doing to them. You think the world's going to get better if you pick on _Floaroma_? Have you _seen_ the people there?"

Mars toyed with the fringe of her dress with calm deliberateness while Dawn maintained the glower. "Tell you what," she said at last. "Let's have a battle to decide just what we do. If _I_ win, _you_ leave."

"And when _I_ win, _you_ leave and never come back here," Dawn supplemented, getting the last word. "Deal."

The commander made some 'move-away' gestures at the grunts. A few of them carried some machines and laptops away. "What are they doing?"

"Just making sure nothing gets destroyed in the crossfire," Mars replied smoothly.

Dawn saw her move as if she was gliding, so confident and sure. Mars really believed that she would win.

Well, so did she.

"Zubat, go!"

Sekhmet was on her left, Neptune on her right. The advantage was with her Luxio, and so she sent her forwards. "Spark," she ordered.

A spark easily took it down, and Mars returned it graciously. "Purugly!"

The round, gray feline came out, hissing and spitting in an attempt to intimidate. Sekhmet returned the favour with a loud yowl and charged.

Mars smirked. "Fake out!"

The Purugly raised a paw, and then smacked Sekhmet's face with its tail. Stunned, her Luxio skidded backwards. "It's okay!" Dawn called, trying to snap her out of the flinch. "Spark!"

"Scratch!"

Sekhmet hissed as the paw caused damage against her side, but she barrelled into the Purugly with her body encased in lightning. Purugly yowled, moving stiffly after Sekhmet hopped back.

Paralysis. "Good job, keep it up!"

Covering herself with electricity, the Luxio charged towards her foe. That was her mistake. Purugly liked to attack at close range, and while the fat cat was paralyzed, it still wasn't a good idea to get too close to the Pokémon, or order her Pokémon to use a move that would get her close.

Mars highlighted this for her.

"Scratch when it comes closer!"

Sekhmet rammed her body into the Purugly, but screamed when the scratch hit her neck area. When the Purugly raked its claws away, blood splattered the ground at their paws. Lots and lots of it. Sure, they'd bled before from attacks similar to scratch before – in the last tournament too – but this was serious. This had been a wound made in an attempt to kill.

Dawn recalled her quickly in fear of losing her, and sent Neptune. The stasis of Poké balls had been greatly improved, but it wasn't perfect yet. She had to get to a center, and soon. "Finish it off!" she shouted, sounding a lot more confident than she really was. Thankfully, she had her Poké balls in her bag. Mars and the others wouldn't see that she had only two Pokémon on her. Hopefully they would believe that her confidence stemmed from having lots of Pokémon at her beck and call.

Just in case, she took out an empty great ball and held it tightly in her hands, pretending she had another Pokémon ready to go. If Neptune fell, then her bluff was over, but she knew he wouldn't fail. She wasn't going to be making a mistake like the one that had cost Sekhmet again. "Bubble beam!"

Purugly was paralyzed and already hurt, but it still took two tries to get it unconscious. "Oops," Mars recalled it with a giggle that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I messed that one up. But it's alright – I quite enjoyed our battle, girl. Whoever you are."

She was lying. At the moment, though, Dawn wasn't going to point that out. Neptune slunk to her side, giving every one and thing a stink eye worthy of an intimidate on its own.

Now that the battle was over, Dawn tried to not shuffle on her feet. She needed them to leave. She needed Emily's dad safe. She needed to get out of here and heal Sekhmet now before something permanent and bad happened. She wasn't ready to lose a Pokémon, not yet – and probably would never be.

"My, my," the old scientist guy said in a dry voice that reminded Dawn of snake Pokémon. And not the pretty ones, either – the creepy ones. "Losing to a child, Mars? But it's alright, since we have everything we need. Why don't we leave now?"

The redhead turned on him, teeth bared in annoyance and disgust. "Shut up! The boss is the only person in the world who I will obey. You stay quiet, newbie."

If they had internal problems, that was fine with Dawn. "But you _are_ leaving, aren't you?" she prompted, reminding the commander of her promise. Neptune was at her side, tips of his flippers glowing in a casual but noticeable metal claw. It was a bit of a bluff, seeing as Sekhmet was out of commission and he was her only functioning Pokémon, but Team Galactic didn't need to know that. _She_ didn't need to show that. She just had to look like an experienced trainer with a battalion of strong Pokémon at her beck and call.

Dawn kept her posture confident, her face blank but sure. She tried to channel her inner Uncle Palmer, who was always confident and with the upper hand, and be every bit the Steele she was. Her spine was locked, but it was straight and didn't shake or tremble. The same applied for her knees and legs. They didn't tremor in fear or in nervousness. For all purposes, she appeared calm and more than capable of continuing on. For extra measures Dawn silently took deep breaths of air and released them through a tiny, invisible gap through her lips, something she did to calm herself at large formal events she went to with her mom.

Mars gave Dawn a sharp smile. She had bought the unspoken bluff. "Yes – time for a good-bye, I suppose. For now. Bye-bye!" she raised her head. "Clear out!"

As she watched, they cleared out at what had to be a record pace. That, at least, they were effective at. She stayed still for a few moments, making sure that they were really gone before she dared to move. Once she was sure, she bolted out the door.

A few seconds later, a pale-faced Dawn was running through the very southern part of Route 205 to the Floaroma Pokémon Center to have Sekhmet healed. Mr. Borden ran after her. He had a limp in his left leg, but the ungraceful trotting gait was nearly fast enough to keep up with her even if he was in danger of tripping and falling flat on his face. He kept asking just where his daughter was, but Dawn ignored him and ran to the center, where she shoved the trainers in line aside. "Emergency," she gasped to the nurse, whose annoyance dripped away once she started explaining. "She's got a neck injury – she was bleeding so badly, and -"

The nurse nodded and took Sekhmet's ball. She placed the capsule into the healing machine. "It's just a cut?" she asked Dawn while another nurse took her spot at the reception area to deal with the other trainers.

Dawn was nearly indignant at her words – _just_ a cut?! – but she kept her calm, residue of bluffing it in front of Mars. "She was battling a bit, but nothing too bad except for the slash."

The machine dinged, and Dawn noticed that the sound took a lot longer than the usual time for healing. The nurse read something off the monitor, and then nodded. "She'll be fine," she said. "I'd recommend that you keep her here just a few more hours, but she'll be fine."

Dawn sighed. "Thank you."

It was only then that she noticed Mr. Borden still tugging at her sleeve like a lost child. "Oh, right. Mr. Borden, come with me – Emily's fine, really, she's just at the flower shop waiting for you."

A legendary couldn't have kept him from running out of the center, limp be damned. Dawn, not having the same emotional excuse, was forced to fast-walk out of the building and then chase after him to the flower shop.

He burst in, making the bells of the shop's doors jangle furiously in dissonant protest at the rough treatment. He ignored it, scanning the shop's interior. It was easy to hone in into the huge stack of goodies, and even easier to see his daughter's familiar dark brown head.

Just as easy as it was for his daughter to turn around and see his face.

"Papa!" shrieking with happiness, Emily flew into her father's arms before flinging herself out. "Blech! You smell, papa! Go take a shower, stinky!"

"I'm sorry, baby girl," he apologized, but there was no hiding the joy in his eyes. "They had me working non-stop, so I couldn't really focus on hygiene."

Emily skipped up to Dawn, who had entered behind her father. "Thank you so much, trainer!" she hugged her, too. "Now the balloon Pokémon will return, since the spacemen are all gone!"

"All gone," Dawn agreed, even if she had no idea what Emily was talking about. Balloon _what_?

Then, Burt – the honey guy – was there, thanking her for saving him and shoving cases of honey into her arms. "I can't accept these!" she sputtered when she nearly dropped the tenth case onto the ground.

"Yes, you can. And you will. Also, you get discounts." He refused to have anything else said on the matter. She put it away into her bag's item storage – she supposed she had earned it, even if she wasn't quite sure what she could use it for.

Dawn stayed in Floaroma for a few more days, wanting to make sure that Sekhmet was comfortable enough to continue on. The nurse assured her that the healing machine had done enough to fix her back to near-perfect condition, but she still stayed, terrified that one wrong move would lead to her Luxio bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere.

Sekhmet had a scar on her neck. A scar. Not only did Pokémon heal incredibly well, but the machines in centers were incredibly – miraculously – efficient, sometimes capable of even restoring lost limbs, depending on which Pokémon it was.

A Luxio wasn't one of those, but even so – she still could heal fast. The fact that she had a scar made her worry incessantly until the Luxio decided that she had enough and gave her a tiny spark to ward off all the coddling. She had no patience for coddling.

After that Dawn gave her less coddling and more apologies during training. Once she got used to Sekhmet leaping and twisting around and stopped cringing in worry, she'd be ready to go.

Emily and Mr. Borden were staying with Emily's grandmother on the other side of town, and they insisted that she stayed with them instead of a motel alone. She was treated like family, and it was nice to stay at an actual house for once.

When it was time to leave Floaroma and get going, she let Emily tackle her into a crushing hug one last time before heading up to Route 205 with the Borden family waving at her until she disappeared from sight.

* * *

When Charles Borden returned to the Valley Windworks, he found a man in a trench coat. Instinctively, his hand went to the pocket where the Pokémon he had just purchased for security dwelled, but trench-coat put his hands up in a gesture of no harm. "Mr. Borden?" he asked. "I'm Agent Looker from Interpol – we spoke on the phone?"

After that, he let Looker look around. The sheriff had come in with his men, but there apparently hadn't been anything of importance left over, and according to him it didn't seem like much use to investigate an abandoned nest.

Agent Looker asked him questions, more in-depths and detailed than the sheriff's had been. "And you say a girl took them down? Singlehandedly?"

Charles nodded. "She was absolutely amazing," he said, recalling how she had simply smashed through all the grunts and defeated even the commander, as confident as a Champion despite her obvious youth. "If it weren't for her . . . ."

Looker took down the descriptions of the saviour, noting that it sounded rather familiar. If he wasn't wrong, then the female trainer with the Prinplup and the Luxio happened to be one of the kids he had warned to be on the lookout for shady characters, one of Professor Rowan's young assistants. "Do you mind if I process the evidence left behind?"

Charles shrugged. "Go ahead."

The scientist left, and Looker was alone with his notes and thoughts in the scene where earlier on, a potentially dangerous organization had been up to _something_. Gathering energy, he had gotten from the interview with Mr. Borden, but the big question still remained. _What for? _

His gut feeling told him that it wasn't anything good. And his gut feeling had gotten him out of a countless number of troubles.

Team Galactic hadn't left any agendas or schedules, but upon closer inspection Looker had found that an email had been carelessly left opened on a computer in the Windworks. "The bringer of wars . . . Your target is the energy of the power plant," he frowned. "The bringer of contentment . . . Your target is the Pokémon statue of Eterna City. The bringer of aging . . . Your target is the Pokémon that sleeps on today."

And, of course, it was signed with nothing but a 'Team Galactic.'

He took some pictures and noted the address. The tone was one a leader would use to strategically place his or her subordinates. If they could track who had sent this, they could reach the head of Team Galactic.

Looker stood up and called headquarters.

* * *

The strategy was simple. Hit hard and fast with Staravia and Ponyta, two very fast Pokémon with super-effective moves.

To untrained eyes, that would have been all that appeared present. But Barry had trained Starling and Camarero until their speed and agility was good enough for them to hit hard and get out quickly enough. They knew how to avoid the scattering, status-causing pollen her Pokémon used, something that took more than just luck and instinct. They'd been trained extensively to avoid those air-born powders, and their effort showed.

Gardenia's Pokémon put on a struggle and actually managed to take down Camarero after a fight prolonged by reflect and a leech seed, but Starling, paralyzed and all, had managed to come through and took down her Roserade with an excellent wing attack.

"Your strategy's a bit lacking," she said as she handed him his second badge. "But you certainly played your Pokémon's strength to their fullest potential." As expected of the Tower Tycoon's son. "For that and your victory, I award you the Forest Badge."

"Sweet!" he took it and let out a loud whoop. Some of the ladies scowled at him, but the younger girls laughed. "Thanks!"

The gym leader smiled. "You're welcome. I wish you luck on your journey."

* * *

AN: The tournaments-thing is one of the things the pixiv comic inspired. The mangaka had such a cool system for it and everything so I stole a few ideas. The trainers in the tournament, for those who didn't get the hints, are based off the trainers on Route 204. Sekhmet actually did evolve while facing the twin Pachirisu, and Neptune learned bubble beam.


	8. Eternal Green

A.S.107

July 19th

_Met Cynthia, one of Prof. R's students. She gave me an egg._

* * *

The thick foliage of Eterna's famous trees tinted the sunlight a light green in the parts where it passed through. Mostly, though the forest was dark, the sun's reach not allowed within the confinements of the branches. Such was the way Eterna forest had been, always remaining as if no time flowed within its trees. An eternal dome, a small world of its own where everything was quiet.

It was, however, daylight outside, and so the map in front of them was visible.

Normally, Cheryl didn't use maps of Eterna Forest. She didn't need to – after all, she had grown up in Eterna City where her family had lived for more generations than anyone could remember, and she was one of those people who knew the place like the back of her hand.

But right now, she was designating sections of the forest to her Pokémon so they could search their areas for anything suspicious. To do that, she needed to be specific and down to the last gridline.

"Florence, you'll search the center of the forest, but your main objective is to heal everyone, okay? If there's a situation that may be dangerous, wait until the others report to you." Cheryl leaned in closer to the Blissey. "You're going to be in charge, alright?"

Her closest partner smiled reassuringly.

"Grant, you'll cover this section," she said as she pointed out the designated area to her Hariyama, who nodded in confirmation.

"Erik, since you're at home in the forest, I want you to cover the largest area." The Roserade gave a cry of confirmation and saluted her with his red bouquet.

"Amelia," she continued, taking her finger away from the map. "You're air support. If anyone gets too hurt to continue or gets lost, then bring them to Florence. Contact me _immediately_ if you see anything. Everyone clear?"

They all nodded.

Cheryl sighed, and leaned in to hug each and every one of them before kissing their foreheads. She even gave one to Amelia, who giggled slightly and used her slip-like arms to cover her x-shaped mouth. "Be careful, guys," she said at last. "And – thank you for coming with me."

Florence poked her shoulder. _You should be careful too_, she seemed to say.

"I'll be alright," Cheryl said in a hopefully reassuring manner. "I've got Mary with me."

Florence could either worry about Cheryl and hurt her daughter's feelings, or she could leave her trainer in her offspring's hand. _Be careful, _the solid pat to her shoulder said.

"I will," Cheryl replied.

Her Pokémon scattered into the green depth of Eterna Forest, disappearing within the folds of the national park's trees. She stood up, and began to make her way to the southern part of the forest when she heard the scream.

"_AHHHHHHHH_!"

Eterna forest was filled with Pokémon, some docile and some . . . not so much. Some young trainers came in unprepared and often found themselves in danger. As a native of Eterna City, Cheryl had seen far too many scarred and injured trainers brought in by the forest's rangers, and some that never made it despite best efforts, which was why her feet were hurrying towards the source of the young girl's scream.

She turned around the corner, expecting the worse. A face permanently disfigured, a Pokémon dead, maybe a broken bone.

What she saw was a perfectly healthy – albeit rather frustrated-looking – girl who was stomping her foot, while two Pokémon stared at their trainer throw a temper tantrum. "I hate this place! I just want to get through to Eterna City, is that so Mespirit-damned hard to ask for?!"

Come to think of it, she was also used to seeing frustrated trainers. While their faces blurred in memory, they were far more plentiful than the ones with serious injuries. "Hello?" Cheryl called, stepping into view. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"

The girl spun on the heels of her pink boots, eyes wide in frustration. She looked ready to rip the blue hair sticking out from under her white hat out of her head. "I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm – just – _lost_."

"Oh," Cheryl understood. It was a large forest, and easy to get lost in. Even some residents of Eterna had a hard time finding their way around, because the trails always changed due to shifting greenery. "Well, I could always show you the way out, if you need."

"Really?" In a second, the girl's frustration was gone from her face, no trace of it left at all. She looked extremely hopeful as she stared at Cheryl. "You could do that?"

"Yes," she said, laughing a bit –the girl was cute, in the childish, petite way. "Oh, sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Cheryl, Cheryl Verdant. And your name is . . . ?"

"I'm Dawn," she said. "Dawn Steele."

Cheryl gave a small start at her last name, though Dawn, eyes drawn to her Prinplup sneezing, hadn't noticed. She opened her mouth, about to ask about possible relatives, but then closed it. The Steele family was one of the largest in Sinnoh. As well-connected and affluent as they were, members didn't know every other cousin and in-law. "Nice to meet you, Dawn," she said instead. "Well then, shall we get going?"

Dawn gave her a bright smile. "Yes please!"

There was a main trail – it was just hard to notice sometimes, because the moss the Eterna Forest was famous for grew all over the place, and trails never stayed uncovered for long despite the efforts of rangers. Even if Dawn stuck to Cheryl, one of the people who could say that they knew Eterna Forest like the back of their hands, it would still take a few hours to clear through the largest forest in Sinnoh.

During those hours of walking together, Cheryl found that the girl, Dawn, talked. A lot. She chattered about everything and anything, including her Pokémon into the conversation at random intervals. And she found herself opening up to her as well. There was something very soothing about talking to her, and she felt as if she could trust this girl with anything. She supposed it was a Steele family trait.

During one of their conversations, Cheryl remembered why she had dropped by Eterna Forest. "It's actually safer to travel together right now," she said. "I hear that Team Galactic members were about."

Dawn's smile had dropped. "Team Galactic?"

That brought a whole new conversation topic, where the girl became much more serious. "See?" she said as she parted the fur around her Luxio's neck, where Cheryl saw a recently healed wound. "One of the commanders did that to Sekhmet."

So, not only was she an ambitious trainer who wanted to collect all the badges in Sinnoh, but she also couldn't stand criminals. Dawn would either become big – or get killed. Cheryl sincerely hoped that it would be the former.

After that she changed the topic. "What Pokémon do you have?" she asked when they had gone through half the forest. Although Cheryl saw no Galactic grunts, she did participate in the occasional double battles with Dawn. Other trainers attempting to hike through the thick, dense forest had done the smart thing and brought along a companion.

"On hand? I'm afraid I only have Mary with me." She patted her Chansey's head. "But I have others. I mostly have Pokémon that specialize in healing or taking hits and stalling out, but I'm afraid that I'm not a very good battler in terms of strength or speed." Which was why she was the HP expert at the Battle Tower. She was patient, and that style of battling fit her well.

"Well," said Dawn, "I guess you just need to try and get out of your comfort zone. Look!"

Cheryl looked to where Dawn was pointing, and saw two Buneary. "I want to catch one," Dawn said. Buneary were quick, and pretty strong with their punches – a good Pokémon to add to her team. After Valley Windworks, Dawn didn't want to be caught with only one Pokémon covering her. Neptune and Sekhmet were strong, but she didn't want to push them to their deaths. Or die herself. That would be rather counterproductive to her being a trainer.

"You catch the other one, alright?"

Taking out Mary's Poké ball, Cheryl headed over to fight one while Dawn distracted and separated the other.

"Careful," she warned Sekhmet. "Don't pull your neck or-"

With a roll of her eyes, Sekhmet lunged. If it weren't for the quick endure it used, the Buneary would have fainted under the spark. Instead, it was left barely standing and paralyzed.

Dawn threw a Poké ball. It was caught without a struggle.

Cheryl's Buneary, though, had decided to run away instead of sticking around to be caught. The green-haired woman gave a smile and a shrug instead. "I guess I'll just stick with my style," she said. "Here, give me your Buneary – I'll heal it. What will you name her?"

Dawn released the rabbit. Despite being paralyzed and barely clinging to consciousness, the Buneary had a stoic expression.

"Frejya, maybe. What do you think?" she asked the Buneary.

The Buneary maintained her indifferent expression, so Dawn took that as a confirmation and keyed it into her Poké ball.

A bit further in – or further out, Dawn supposed – they ran into a Hoothoot. Her watch did say it was nearing night, although the forest looked as dim as it had before. "Do you mind if I-" Dawn began, raising an empty Poké ball.

Cheryl shook her head. Dawn caught the bird using Frejya, whose quickness hit the bird into stunned slowness before it could fly out of Poké ball range.

"You're catching a lot of Pokémon," Cheryl noticed. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle training up so many at once?"

"I think so," Dawn said, releasing the Hoothoot and letting the green-haired woman heal up the bird. "Minerva. Do you like that name? You do? Okay. And it's what a trainer does, right? Catch Pokémon and train them?"

Cheryl would have said more to that – numbers weren't everything, and there were more important things than quantity – when she remembered the obvious closeness between the girl and her two older Pokémon. She would be fine.

Two hours after catching Minerva, they were at the eastern exit – or entrance, depending on how it was looked at – of Eterna Forest. Dawn surprised Cheryl by turning around to give her a fierce a hug. "Thank you for everything."

She returned the embrace. "Oh, it was nothing," she replied. "Here – I want you to have this."

Impulsively, she reached into her bag and dug out a small box. Some time ago, one of Cheryl's admirers at the Battle Tower had sent her a gift – a lovely, silver-plated soothe bell with a small jeweled orb on a ribbon. Since the man had been one of the creepier fans she had, Cheryl had no problems giving away the gift, especially to someone who deserved it. It would help with her getting closer to her Pokémon.

"It's pretty," Dawn noted. Then, because Frejya seemed to like the sound of it chiming, she gave it to the Buneary so she could wear it around her neck. "Thanks, Cheryl. For both the bell and the healing."

"No problem," she smiled softly at her. "Good luck with your badge, Dawn. I hope to see you again."

"Me too."

And then Cheryl went back to patrolling the forest while Dawn continued on out, ready to enter one of the oldest cities in Sinnoh.

* * *

"Hey you!"

A Galactic grunt jogged up to her when she pointed to herself blankly. "Yeah you! Hand over your-"

Sekhmet, out by her side for safety reasons, let out a warning growl. He faltered and stepped back. "Uh, you look tough – I mean, never mind. Carry on."

Eterna was a wonderful city. Modern buildings were around, sure, but the city was permeated with the feeling of the past – nostalgia, old books and statues. Almost every god in Sinnoh had at least one temple dedicated towards them in the city, and whenever festival times came up, the city threw some of its world-famous celebrations in honour of the holy days.

Dawn loved it. Even as night fell while she stepped out of the forest that shared its name, the city's historical beauty and landmarks could still be seen. The growing shadows only made them seem all the more mysterious, giving an almost mythical quality to their age and value.

And she would have loved it even more if it weren't for the grunts crawling around here and there, their bright teal hair visible from afar. It really did ruin the view, like poisonous, obnoxiously coloured mushrooms popping up everywhere in a peaceful zen garden.

Unfortunately, she couldn't get the police to do anything. "If you can't identify the individuals," the officer she had spoken to shrugged helplessly, "then we can't just bring in random people, even if they are of the same organization."

She'd gone right to the police when she had caught sight of the familiar, obnoxious blue-green hairstyle. Back in the Windworks there hadn't been a choice but to let Galactic leave, but now? Surely now she could do something, and give the police a reason to arrest these crooks.

But apparently not. "Not even for questioning?" she tried.

He sighed. "The last time we tried that, the city was nearly sued for all it was worth. The mayor's against trying that again."

And since they weren't going around threatening people, Dawn very well couldn't pick on _them_ either because that was illegal. "This sucks," she complained. "If that guy had tried to grab you guys, at least I could have gotten _him_ in. It's not your fault," she added at the look on Sekhmet's face. "It's all his."

She wasn't going to pull a stupid stunt like setting up a trap, either. That was practically begging for danger. Which left her with the option of doing nothing.

But could she stay inactive?

Her head hurt. All the buts coming up in her head for every decision she was about to make made this very hard to think through.

"Dawn!"

She smiled at the very welcome distraction that took the form of one hyper blond waving crazily to her. "Barry!"

Her friend jogged up to her. "You're late," he scolded. "I've already gotten the badge and everything. What took you so long? You got lost in Eterna Forest, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't." It was technically the truth, since she had found the way in the end yesterday, thanks to Cheryl. It was more due to Team Galactic causing a ruckus in Floaroma.

"Right, right. By the way, the leader here specializes in grass types, so I hope you caught more Pokémon since Neptune and Sekhmet won't have much of an edge."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at him. "You don't know that."

Barry just grinned. "You caught some."

He knew her too well. "Yeah . . ."

"Show me!"

So she released all her Pokémon as they wandered around the city. Minerva was friendly enough, but Frejya kept a cool distance. "Man, she's an ice queen," he said, pointing to her Buneary.

"She's awesome," Dawn retorted. "And she can pound you into the ground if she wanted. In fact, we could prove it in a battle right now."

Barry, surprisingly, shook his head and declined. "Nah, you need to save your energy for the gym leader. She's pretty tough, so you better have gotten better. Oh, hey, see that?"

Him and his attention span. He had changed the subject before she could tell him that she could take the gym leader. "What?"

"Are you blind or something? _That_."

She hoped that he was pointing to the large statue of a creature with a fearsome jaw and twisted limbs. "What _is_ that?" it looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. She knew she'd seen it in a history book before . . . .

"It's a fusion of the Lady of Time, Dialga, and the Lord of Space, Palkia," Barry answered – _intelligently_ – much to her surprise. Normally he knew next to nothing about mythology except what she brainwashed him into remembering. "See, there was this belief that the world was created by time and space merging once. Or was it a version of a belief?"

When he noticed Dawn staring at him, he beamed. "Someone told me that," he said. "And I remembered it all."

"Yes you did."

"Gah!" Dawn jumped.

"Oh," the person responsible for her shock apologized. "I'm sorry – I didn't intend to scare you."

"It's fine," she said, patting her chest and making sure her heart was okay.

The woman smiled. She had a friendly smile and intelligent gray eyes, framed by pale blonde – East Sinnohan, just like Barry's family – hair set in smooth waves. She reminded Dawn of a businesswoman, with her all-black, formal-looking clothes, but with the touches that made it more fashionable than the classics with the jewelled brooch at the center of the duster. The accessory was black, but it was the design based off the crest of Iron Queens, a popular design for female trainers to wear.

Before Dawn could try to figure out just which designer brand the woman's wardrobe came from, she turned to her childhood friend. "Is she the friend you were talking about, Barry?" the blonde asked the boy.

"Yup! Hey, Dawn, this is Cynthia! She likes myths like you!"

"Hi." She offered a hand. The blonde woman took it and gave a firm shake. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Cynthia replied as she withdrew her hand. "Professor Rowan's told me about you two – I took a part in the first Sinnohan Pokédex distribution," she added when Dawn looked surprised. "Interested in myths, you say?"

"Very." Dawn nodded. If she knew Professor Rowan, then she was trustworthy. Hopefully.

"Hey, I'm the one who said that!" Barry whined.

The black-clothed blonde smiled. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean any offense."

Dawn's childhood friend was quick to forgive and forget. "S'all good. Well, I've got to run – see ya, Dawn! Bye, Cynthia! Nice meeting you!"

She waved, before turning back to Cynthia, questions ready to burst. "So is it true what Barry told me? That the statue down there is a fusion of the two?"

"A statue based on the theory that this world is a creation of time and space mixing together, yes." Cynthia looked down at the statue, almost grotesque in the way the back of the creature twisted upwards in a near-sickening angle. "And even then, it's really only one of many suggestions on just how that fusion was 'mixed'. I've even read papers suggesting that the two legendaries became lovers and the egg they gave birth to was the world."

Dawn got her eyes off the statue. That version, she hadn't heard before. "But what about the other legendaries?"

Cynthia shrugged. "If that was the case, then they too would have been born with, or after the world. It is not my favourite theory, I must admit. It leaves too many questions unanswered, but then again, perhaps that's because there hasn't been enough scripture of it uncovered."

". . . So this is Eterna's statue."

The blonde gave a mysterious smile. "It seems other people are interested in the myths of Sinnoh as well." She nodded to a blue-haired man standing in front of the statue, lips pressed into a thin line and narrowed eyes boring holes into the face of the creature depicted. "A great thing. They're quite rich and complex, and the truth they are said to contain has always been elusive to even the most ambitious of scholars."

"Is that so?" the blue-haired man had overheard Cynthia speaking, and now approached them to address her directly. "Are you such a scholar, madam?"

He sounded doubtful, like he thought Cynthia too unworthy or ignorant to be such a person.

The blonde smiled slightly, but it wasn't quite as nice as the one she had given Dawn. It made her more wary to see it because there was an edge to it, directed to the slightly disbelieving tone his question contained. "In my spare time," she admitted vaguely. "And you, sir? What brings your interests to the Sinnoh myths?"

He looked at the two of them. No – he ignored Dawn, really, because in his eyes she was a short child who probably did not understand half the things being said in front of her. His gaze, cold and purely calculating, was directed at Cynthia. "Time and Space shapes our world in an intertwining spiral," he said, nodding towards the statue of Dialga and Palkia's merged figures. "The two Pokémon are revered within this region, based on the myths. Its truth needs investigation. Wouldn't you agree?"

Cynthia raised one eyebrow. He sounded like a theist. "I would."

It looked like that was all the blue-haired man needed, because he simply curled his lips upwards in what might have been a smile and left. "Pardon," he muttered when he slightly bumped into Dawn, almost like he couldn't quite care about the societal norms that dictated he ask for forgiveness for brushing against her, but did it out of something akin to absolute necessity.

That felt familiar, but it wasn't until he was gone from sight and hearing that Dawn clapped her hands together. "I saw that guy before!" she exclaimed, remembering the day when she and Barry had stood on the shores of their favourite lake, when the unidentified sound had shaken the very air and their cores. The day she received her Pokédex from the professor and officially went on her journey. "He was the one at Lake Verity!"

"At Lake Verity? He seems very interested in the myths of Sinnoh," Cynthia mused for a while before she shook her head. "I keep losing my focus. I'm sorry, Dawn, it's been wonderful to meet you and discuss myths, but it seems I should get going. Before I do that, though, would you do me a favour?"

"Um, sure?" she seemed like a nice enough person.

Cynthia opened the wicker hamper she had been carrying. Inside, nestled in soft cloths, was an egg. "There's a baby Pokémon in this," she said, "just waiting to see the world. It's a habit of mine to give the eggs of my Pokémon to trainers who are interested in myths, because I want my Pokémon's offspring to grow up with different sides of legends and histories told to them. If Professor Rowan trusts you, then that's more than enough of a recommendation for me. Would you take care of him or her and help the Pokémon grow?"

Inside, Dawn couldn't help but grumble a bit – how was it that everything she did seemed to be tracing Lyra in her footsteps? – but she smiled and agreed to do so.

* * *

"An egg?" Sekhmet tossed her mane in clear irritation. "Why can't I eat it?"

Neptune scowled at her. This wasn't a matter of her being _hungry_ – this was a matter of her showing off to the two new members of the team to establish that she was strong and capable of ruthlessness. She wanted to establish herself as the boss here.

First things first. _He_ was team leader here, type advantage or not. And _she_ was forgetting her place – trainer's words trumped power. "Because _Dawn_ said so."

"Hmph," the electric-type sniffed, but she didn't challenge the order. He had invoked their trainer's name, and their trainer had been absolutely adamant about the matter – the egg was not to be harmed by any of them, intentionally or 'accidentally'.

Their two new teammates sniffed at the egg. Frejya, a Buneary that didn't like to show much emotion, was an herbivore and wasn't interested in seeing the egg being hurt. Minerva didn't care.

Their additions to Neptune's group had been rather sudden. At least, Neptune felt so.

But Dawn treated them like they were old friends, or family. While they weren't as great as he was, she still gave them a warm welcome and took care of them excellently, grooming them and making sure to consult them on the kinds of food they liked. Dawn was just like that, he supposed, and as the leader of this team he figured that he would have to set a good precedent. Because the two of them weren't as strong as he was, Neptune felt that he had to pity their less supreme selves and accept them, because otherwise no one else would.

"I'm back," Dawn said as she came up to them. She had been gone to buy some special postcards to send to her mom, something she did at every town or city except Jubilife, because Jubilife was pretty close and they went to the city a lot. "How's the egg?"

The Pokémon all shrugged.

* * *

Adam Martin, or the Underground Man, as he was known best, had been nothing short of thrilled when a young, aspiring academic came in to inquire about the Sinnoh Underground, the intricate system of tunnels under Sinnoh. In fact, he'd been so thrilled that he promptly took the young, inquisitive boy in as an apprentice right then and there to mentor him on the art of excavating and tunnelling, just as he had mentored his son and grandson.

It was hard work, digging and excavating, but Lucas enjoyed spending time underground immensely. He dug up a few evolutionary stones and even a fossil that was confirmed to be one of the 'Armour' variety.

"Just take it to Oreburgh's museum," the Underground Man, or Master, as Lucas was to call him, said. Unlike other regions, there weren't strict restrictions and regulations on fossil Pokémon in Sinnoh. There was, of course, the occasional controversy for religious regions and reasons, but those had been more serious when revived Pokémon first came out. By now no one really cared except the occasional surge in extremist cults. "They'll extract the DNA and revive it for free if you let them keep what's left of the fossil after."

Which was more than Lucas could have asked for. He felt free here, even if it was a bit ironic that he would feel so liberated underground.

"Isn't this nice, Charlotte?" he asked his Monferno as they set up his secret base. His father would probably say that something like a secret base was immature and childish, but he liked it. He could decorate it the way he wanted to decorate his room, and it would be his private place, not just an extension of the prison his home felt like sometimes.

The fire monkey sniffed at the Chimchar doll the Underground Man had given him after seeing his starter. "You're cuter," he assured her as he placed the wooden chair next to the table.

She chattered happily and a genuine smile came up on his face. "Alright," he said. "I think we've spent enough time below. Let's go work on our Pokédex now."

* * *

Lyra had simply carried her Togepi in her arms back when he had been inside an egg as she battled and went on her journey.

Dawn was too terrified at the idea of her dropping the egg, especially because it rocked back and forth on its base every now and then. The idea of dropping it during a shake to see the shell shatter and spill its contents – whatever they would look like – made her feel cold sweats down her spine.

To not get in that situation, she kept it nested in the hamper Cynthia had given the egg to her in. Training hadn't been hard because Neptune, acting rather amusingly like an overprotective daddy Pokémon, insisted that she sat and watched over the egg instead of running everywhere with them as usual, but Dawn didn't like sitting and doing nothing while her Pokémon did all the work. She was supposed to build a connection with them, and for as long as she could remember she had watched her mom participate in everything with her Pokémon when rehearsing, coordinating or choreographing. Uncle Palmer, too, was famous for letting his Milotic and Dragonite out at Lake Verity before diving into the lake himself. Just sitting and supervising without taking part felt weird, almost wrong even.

She tried to get as involved as possible. Having purchased a few things like Frisbees and softballs, she threw them at her Pokémon to get them used to dodging fast, small projectiles. They weren't as fast or as many as razor leaves would be, but her Pokémon rose to the challenge. Soon she was changing to a slingshot and pebbles with edges that would hurt more.

"You okay?" she called when Frejya was hit on the head by a rock she hadn't noticed until it was too late. The Buneary shook it off and made gestures with her ears to keep them coming. Frejya, Dawn took mental notes, didn't show her emotions very well. She took everything rather seriously, and seemed almost apathetic at times.

But she battled. She'd proven that she was pretty strong already by breaking boulders with her ears, and she was getting good at using quick attack for starting _blitzkrieg_ hits. Her ability, run away, was also helpful against the tricky nature of grass types and their love of statuses. Out of all Dawn's Pokémon, Frejya was the best at avoiding powders sprinkled in the air.

That had been a fun experiment. She'd taken some flour and thrown fistfuls of them at her Pokémon, who all had to scramble out of the way as she went after them waving fists of white powder. Most of them had gotten it on their faces – where Dawn had specifically aimed – but Frejya had dodged facial contact with it each time.

Spore attacks like poison powder, stun spore or sleep powder didn't get in the body through the nose or mouth only. It was possible for the effects of the powder to be absorbed through the skin. However, that method took a much longer time, and wasn't as reliably accurate in is success. A lungful – even a mouthful or a nostril-full – of status-inducing spore would paralyze, poison or knock a Pokémon out. Frejya could avoid that, and buy time for more attacks.

And then, of course, there was Minerva, her secret weapon. Her type gave her an advantage over the gym's type. The plan was to use her like Dawn had used Neptune in Oreburgh – sweep through the trainers in the gym to get her used to the style of the gym, and then save her against the gym leader until she sent out her ace. Other than that, Dawn didn't have much planned for the Hoothoot. She was near evolution, judging by the way she grew and shed her small brown down for longer, stiffer feathers. Dawn made sure to feed her vitamins and nutritious food so that when she _did_ evolve, she wouldn't be deprived of nutrients.

"I think we're ready," she told them on the third day of the Egg Watch. She wasn't sure what was in the egg, and had been trying to observe it to understand just what kind it could be. A Magikarp? A Feebas? A Budew?

She had told Lyra about it over their daily chats, mentioning it to distract the Johtoan trainer from the news of Team Galactic and their thick presence in Eterna City before she found out about Mars. Lyra had, in return, taken the decoy and joked about the likelihood of it being a Togepi. They went as far as planning out a wedding between their two Togepi for half an hour over chats before letting it go.

At the gym, she booked a battle for the next day, and all of them spent the rest of the day running around Eterna to relax and look at famous landmarks.

* * *

AN: So, biweekly updates. Yeah.


	9. The Grass That Ties

A.S.107

July 22nd

_I challenged the Eterna Gym today, and learned a new lesson. The egg hatched, as well, but unfortunately for C, I won't be showing the Pokémon inside the world. _

* * *

"I cannot believe you redesigned my gym," her cousin complained as she placed her Pokémon into the healing machine. Once they were placed in the slots, Gardenia led him to one of the tables set in the newly decorated gym.

The gym leader had the gall to snicker. "You gave up the rights to having a say about the interior of this gym when you quit. And besides! It was a _forest_. I'm all for forests, but _really_, Aaron. Sometimes I'm convinced you have the creativity and EQ of a dead Magikarp."

"For all you know they could be very creative," the bug-type specialist of the Sinnoh Elite Four and former leader of Eterna Gym replied loftily. "It's not like you ever asked a _ghost_ of one. And okay, so the forest wasn't exactly creative. But it matched the badge. You know, the _Forest_ Badge? What is _this_?"

"_Obviously_," Gardenia tossed her short hair back, "it's a clock."

The garden-like field the main room of the gym had been changed to was shaped like a large clock – a sundial – that served as an area where the many grass type Pokémon of the gym could relax in, enjoying the sunlight that came in through the convertible roof while waiting for challengers of the gym to come by. Each quarter of the clock was a section that the challenger had to clear to reach the center, where the gym leader would be watching.

Up to four challengers could be challenging the gym at the same time like back when the forest maze was in the gym, but it made it easier for the gym leader to monitor possible challengers while getting through more of them at the same time. Once they had completed the first part of the gym challenge, they would reach her at the center, and from then on be taken to an arena for the official battle.

But it wasn't the missing forest – that had been cleverly grown into a maze in Aaron's time – or the bright, sunny tea-party garden it had been replaced with that made him so irritated. It was just what that gigantic eyesore of a clock was made out of that made his head pound in rather distinct shame for the gym that had formerly been his. It was because the gigantic sundial underfoot was . . . "Made out of flowers," Aaron said flatly.

"Hey, my gym now. My rules. Besides, I kept that forest maze in here for how many years? I _deserve_ the right to redecorate."

Aaron muttered some expletives. Gardenia tapped the table they sat around with a fingernail, making a sharp rapping sound. "Watch your mouth, cousin dearest, or I _will_ wash it with the Roserade-scented soap."

"Fine, fine," he waved his hands. "I concede defeat."

"Elite, my ass," Gardenia grumbled jokingly. "By the way, did you get a new message from Cheryl?"

"You mean anything after than the forwarded one where she electronically thrashed you for not patrolling the forest yourself, despite being the gym leader with the jurisdiction and responsibility?" when his grin was met with a flat look, he shrugged. "Nope."

"Never mind," she said when a very familiar woman with green hair walked up to them. "Speak of the Sneasel and . . . ."

"Sorry I'm late," Cheryl pushed her braid behind her shoulders where it draped across her back. "I was only just patrolling the biggest forest in Sinnoh for a few days with only my Pokémon to help, looking for potentially dangerous people and helping a trainer get to Eterna City safely. Without any help from my family. Who both work for the League and are excellent trainers themselves and actually have reason to help, unlike a civilian – like me."

Cheryl was rarely sarcastic. She only ever became so when she was a bit bitter about something. Luckily, it never lasted.

"Was he cute?" Aaron asked, being the teasing brother.

Cheryl rolled her eyes. Mention helping out an attractive co-worker once, and every good deed was judged. Older brothers. "_She_ was _very_ cute. And she wanted to challenge you," she added for Gardenia's sake, deciding to not mention the possibly ironic connection between Dawn and said co-worker. That would just set him off again.

"Another one, huh?" Gardenia ran some fingers through her bangs, tugging at the slightly-uneven fringe. "Well, hopefully she's the one that booked a match. So, anything on Galactic activity?"

Her cousin shrugged. "None of my Pokémon picked up anything suspicious, and I didn't run into anything odd." Other than Dawn, but the girl was odd in a good way.

"Are you sure?"

Cheryl sighed. "You're welcome to search the forest yourself if you don't trust me," she told Gardenia. "Although, night always did fall fast in the forest. All those ghost Pokémon, wandering through the trees . . . ."

When their cousin paled, the siblings laughed. "I'm sure Cheryl could always lend you Amelia," Aaron said.

Gardenia good-naturedly scowled at them. "Alright, out you two," she gestured. "Scram. I've got a challenger coming soon. We need to set the gym up."

Aaron couldn't resist the opportunity to make one last jab at his cousin regarding her gym's interior decorating. "See now, if you had stuck with the _forest_ for your gym, you could have bought some _time_ for yourself with the maze-"

She rolled her eyes. "Out!"

* * *

Dawn challenged the Eterna Gym the next day. The gym, like most gyms, followed a theme revolving around its specialty type. Oreburgh's had been simple in design, resembling a large coal mine for specializing in rock types.

Eterna's was different. It was brightly coloured thanks to the opened roof, with flowers and delicate shrubbery at the sides making a short and curving path through an obstacle course. This ensured that she faced every single one of the gym trainers.

It wasn't hard. Minerva took them out easily, and after defeating the second gym trainer even managed to evolve. Her round body elongated until it was all predator-like edges and deadly sharpness. Her gaze focused even more, and she lost all of her soft, brown down for the tan-shaded feathers, thick and stiff.

"Do you think you can continue on?" Dawn asked after having her drink some water and eat a few berries. It was better for the Pokémon to take a rest after evolving, but she really wanted to win the badge quickly so that Barry wouldn't get ahead of her. Besides, they'd won last time even after a last-minute evolution, she didn't see why a repeat wouldn't happen.

Minerva as a Noctowl nodded. When she had first joined the team, Neptune, the team leader, had led the welcoming discussion with stories about his heroics. One of them had been just how he'd managed to pull off several victories against a gym leader even after the exhausting process of undergoing evolution into a significantly larger form.

Not to be outdone, Sekhmet had mentioned her own tales as well, about evolving and still battling in a tournament. Neither of them had turned their expecting glares onto her or Frejya, but Minerva had felt the pressure back then, and she felt it now. Dawn was a nice human, nice enough for her to want to battle with her because she made it fun, but she didn't want to seem inferior in comparison to Neptune or Sekhmet, especially not when she was the member of the team best suited to this gym.

"If you're sure," said Dawn.

Minerva certainly did alright, taking out the last of the gym trainers with renewed vigour and stronger wings. When they were finished with the aroma lady, Dawn made sure she got more water and an oran berry in her. "I'm going to return you," she explained. "You've evolved, but that doesn't change the plan. Take a good rest, alright?"

The Noctowl nodded, and then disintegrated into red light before being returned to her ball. Dawn tucked her Poké ball into her pocket and took a deep breath to slow down her fast-thudding heart before steeling herself and walking up to her end of the field.

Gardenia, gym leader of Eterna City waited on the other side, while a cluster of Exeggcute began to buff up the force fields around the arena for protection. The referee called out the rules, but Dawn had already studied them the night before. She tuned him out and focused on relaxing until the final moment. Staying calm as to not lose her composure or make rash decisions was important. She knew she could be stupid if she was hyped up. Most of the times, next to Barry, her decisions looked a lot better than they were, but he wasn't here for comparison now. She had to bring her best game to the table.

When the referee gave the sign, she sent out her first Pokémon a heartbeat after Gardenia did, and found that Frejya stood against a Turtwig.

In the story of the Buneary and the Turtwig, the Turtwig won because of its endurance and persistence. In this arena, it was Frejya's speed and agility versus the Turtwig's defences and sturdiness.

After some thought, she decided against switching out. Turtwig couldn't keep up with Frejya's speed. In terms of mobility, they had the advantage, and she wouldn't have to worry about any kind of status inflicted through powders. She'd done her research on the Turtwig line because of Barry and Champ. They were power hitters and tanks, not status inflictors.

Besides, every time she had faced a Turtwig, speed had always been her greatest edge.

Frejya paused to assess her foe with a foresight, and then she was off like a rocket, ears outstretched and ready to sock something hard with a rock smash.

"Razor leaf to defend," Gardenia called for, and the Turtwig swung its head to throw some leaves in the foe's direction, using the rest to surround his body in an offensive shield. A counter shield, of a sort, one that would hurt any attackers that came too close. Frejya dodged the thrown leaves, and got up close. She was nicked with the sharp edges of the razor leaves on the counter shield, but she ignored them and barrelled on with her punching, occasionally batting a razor leaf away with her paws as she danced around the sides of the Turtwig to keep up the back-to-back rock smashes. At the Buneary continuing to throw punches despite the leaves hitting her, Gardenia raised an eyebrow.

Dawn knew why the gym leader was surprised. It wasn't hard to come up with a counter shield of a sort, using offense as defense to discourage foes from getting close for physical fights. Almost any ranged moves could be used for the 'shielding' purpose, to keep foes at bay. Lots of younger, newer trainers made the mistake of assuming that the counter shield was a perfect strategy no one else had ever come up with, that it would be their ticket to fame and glory.

After years of listening to Palmer's explanations on the game of Pokémon training and watching his battles, Dawn knew better than to make that common assumption. She knew that the so-called perfect defense was actually riddled with flaws, and how a good trainer got over the challenge.

First – counter shields, like all strategies and manoeuvres or shields and armour were not without its imperfections in its defensive capabilities. That had been the lesson drilled into her by Palmer when he had the time to talk to her and his son about battling. There would always be weak points in the offensive defense, chinks in the armour, so to speak. It was harder to find the chink in a broader move like eruption or discharge that was all but _made_ to be used as counter shields, but it was possible because there would always be a spot uncovered. More skilled Pokémon could reduce the chink or move it to a harder place to attack from, but no counter shield could be perfect. If it was, it wouldn't last long.

Second – counter shields were not foolproof. Literally.

This, Palmer had explained as the suicidal fool jumping straight into what was obviously the face of danger. To the new trainers who thought counter shields perfect, their reasoning for just why the counter shield was perfect was based off the logic that only fools would charge headfirst into the offensive terror that was the counter shield.

But that was the point. Counter shields required a lot more focus and control over the use of attacks. It was simpler to, say, throw razor leaves at a specific target than it was to have them thrown around your body while not hitting said body. It wasn't the hardest thing, to use offense defensively, but it took training to get that kind of control, enough for the Pokémon to not hurt themselves while keeping the attack going off near enough to protect. That kind of focus, unless trained extensively and mastered, left the Pokémon using the counter shield vulnerable for a brief moment when the shield of offense was breached.

And it could be breached. Generally, wild Pokémon with common sense hesitated to charge directly into danger. Trainers and trained Pokémon sometimes did the same, whether they were rookies or more experienced. It was, after all, logical. Every sense of the body, dedicated to survival, would have screamed to _not_ jump directly into the counter shield. To not get near that whirling tornado of guaranteed mutual pain. Heck, even trained Pokémon had that sense of hesitance, because the sense of survival was always somewhere in the back of their mind.

The more reckless Pokémon would charge right in without a whit of care. The smarter trainers would realize the weakness of the counter shield.

Them, along with those who knew the strength of a focused will would know that after the initial shield, there was a safe zone the offensive trying to get through the offensive defense could reach, as long as they were able to bear getting through the painful shield. Once they were through, they had a time period where they could hit the shield-raiser in the few seconds it took to adjust from offensive-defense to offense or defense. Inside the safe zone, the former defender would be forced to choose from three options; disengage and retreat, attack or defend.

Uncle Palmer had always said that the will was the most important thing in getting through, the inner focus in the center of a Pokémon's core. It may have been him repeating the words of Azelf, but that was what he said it took. It took willpower. Hesitation while charging at a counter shield would be dangerous, as it exposed them to other tactics the trainer would undoubtedly have up their sleeves, but to charge it, head first, still took guts and determination. The counter shield would most likely be weaker than if the Pokémon had chosen to use the attack in an exclusively offensive manner because it would have to be spread over the defender, but its purpose was to harm attackers and harm it would do. It took guts, or reckless fools who didn't mind getting hurt.

Frejya had guts. While it wasn't the same type behind the offensive defense, she and Minerva had practiced with Sekhmet and Neptune and their own versions of counter shields; Sekhmet with a spark and charge combo that gave the electricity from the spark a bit of range, and Neptune with a bubble beam controlled through a closely-kept water sport.

They hadn't been the best counter shields, of that Dawn was painfully aware, but they had been enough to invoke the instinct to pause and shy away from the obvious danger. It had steeled their nerves and made them practice facing pain, to really draw on the strength from their inner guts. Frejya had been _good_ at it, too. Her Pokémon had learned how to stare pain in the eye and overcome the fear, which was essential to getting through the counter shield. The Buneary was a natural at breaking counter shields.

Despite Palmer's extensive explanations on just why she and Barry shouldn't make the mistake of assuming that the counter shield was a perfect strategy to use in battle, he had admitted, in the end, that it _was_ a good tactic to use. Just not _perfect_. There were ways to deal with it, and that method was what they needed to keep in mind when they were faced with it, and when they used it themselves.

Dawn wouldn't be using counter shields with Sekhmet and Neptune, or any of her Pokémon just yet in official battles – the current versions she'd tried out for the sake of training took more time to set up than it was worth – but if they ever learned new moves more suitable for the purpose, it would be nice to use. Counter shields were best used in spontaneous moments, where the foe was charging at the Pokémon. The counter shield would either make the foe hesitate in executing the attack to earn a few extra seconds of reprieve, or cause them harm as they tried to engage anyways. It just took timing and right decisions to pull it off successfully, that was all.

Frejya, having given the Turtwig a brief circling, began to hop to face the front. When she was in front of the Turtwig's face, she crouched before springing up so she could deliver her two punches with as much body weight as possible in a vicious undercut of a rock smash.

Except Turtwig glowed.

Except Gardenia gave the order. "Reflect!"

The shield that would decrease the potency of all physical attacks sprung up between the chin of the Turtwig and Frejya's ears. Even if she could see bruising in the area the grass type had been hit, the rock smashes hadn't done as much damage as she'd counted upon.

And now they were up close and personal, and the slow Pokémon could get the hit in if they didn't move. "Get out of there," Dawn shouted, and Frejya sprang backwards just in time to avoid a tackle that would have pinned her to the ground.

Frejya's best hope – and she was the Pokémon best fit for the job facing the Turtwig right now – was to continue on with the original plan of wearing down the Turtwig with small but devilishly quick attacks before the Turtwig won over stamina. The reflecting screen up would prolong the process painfully, but Dawn had faith it could work. "Quick attack, from the left," she said.

The Buneary charged again, and threw her body onto the Turtwig's neck in a vicious quick attack. In return, the Turtwig shook his head to release more razor leaves. Frejya ducked to avoid getting a projectile in the face, but her ears took more than a few cuts to them. She kicked the Turtwig in the side before jumping backwards, out of direct contact range with enough room to dodge a reasonable number of razor leaves.

"Quick attack to the back of the neck, follow with rock smash on the head," Dawn instructed. It was like the first battle she had with Neptune against Barry. She had to be quick, and get the Turtwig from the side where he couldn't really see. The grass type's body didn't allow for much wiggle room, either, making it all the better place to hit from.

Dawn never considered the possibility that Gardenia would be very aware of these things. That was her mistake.

"Razor leaf, Mo."

Without turning, the Turtwig unleashed a few more of the knife-like leaves to his back. They were thrown wide, not particularly aimed at any target, but it forced Frejya to make some distance between the two of them to avoid getting hit.

Fine, keep dragging. The effects of reflect would wear out with time, and then Frejya could get a hit in without having to have her strength reduced by the shielding spell.

"Quick attack," Dawn said. Now that they knew that Mo the Turtwig couldn't aim with razor leaves when he shot them behind his head, all they had to do was be careful of the one razor leaf that would come in their direction.

Frejya charged, but suddenly fell in the middle of her charge with a startled sound.

Dawn had to stand on the tip of her toes to get a better look. Was that grass wrapped around one of Frejya's feet?

"Kick it off!" she yelled. Whatever it was, she didn't want Frejya trapped in one place. Her Buneary's strength was her speed and her ability to dodge. If that was taken away, she would become a sitting Psyduck in the line of fire.

"Keep using grass knot," Gardenia ordered.

The Buneary struggled to escape, but the grass clung on steadily and more strands joined in on the binding effort. She could only kick at the grass when she had one foot on the ground, and the grass moved to tie down that other, base foot.

Mo the Turtwig stopped using grass knot once he was sure that his foe would be tied down for a while. While the Buneary struggled, he raised his head up and chanted a spell for sunny day to the open skies of the gym. It was already a clear day, and so the weather change didn't take too much time or effort ton his part.

When he was done, he took aim at the still-struggling Buneary tangled in the grass knots he'd tied. He knew special attacks for coverage and for setting up traps like the one going on right now, but his best offensive attributes lay in his physical attack.

He unleashed razor leaves, more than he had in this battle. Frejya screeched as they hit her, but bent over to raise her feet as much as she could. Some of the sharp leaves cut at the grass, and with her bonds weakened she kicked them off successfully this time.

The Buneary scrambled back to her feet and looked at Dawn. She'd charged the counter shield that had been a maybe in their game plan, she had escaped bindings and taken a lot of hits. Dawn guessed that Frejya had used endure at her own discretion just to pull through every now and then.

Yet she still looked to Dawn to give the order. She still trusted Dawn.

Dawn made the decision. "Charge."

Frejya didn't question or complain. She followed her trainer's orders, and landed a few rock smashes in the area around the Turtwig's face before she herself got a few razor leaves to her face.

"Thanks Frejya," Dawn said as she returned the unconscious Buneary to her ball. The Turtwig had taken hits, but he wasn't exactly near the brink either.

Fine. She'd _push_ him to the brink, and off of it. She let Neptune out as her next Pokémon.

Her Prinplup had been instructed to charge and start pecking at the foe the moment his feet hit the ground unless she shouted for something else. Not hearing orders otherwise, Neptune ran. Prinplup weren't known for their speed, but they were faster in comparison to Turtwig.

And Neptune knew how to take care of Turtwig. He pecked, picking harshly at the sprout on the grass turtle's head like a bully. Razor leaves Mo tried to shoot were batted away with metal claws, and in the struggle Neptune ended up sitting on Mo's shell while pecking like a hungry bird on the top of his head.

Even a Turtwig couldn't last against such a barrage for long, especially one against his head. He fainted, and when Neptune was sure that the slump was a faint he got off of his unconscious foe to let the gym leader return him.

Gardenia released her next Pokémon without any words or show. She was a lot quieter in comparison to Roark, and Dawn found the contrast interesting. Perhaps it depended on the type specialty? Rock types tended to be more focused on blunt confrontations, while grass types were excellent at subterfuge and using the environment to their advantage. It looked like the leaders had picked up on the traits of their favoured types.

Filing that tidbit of information away for later thought and research, Dawn focused on the present challenge. The next foe Pokémon was a Cherrim. Under the sunny day left by Mo, the purple-cloaked bud immediately opened up to reveal a cheerful yellow face framed by pale pink petals. "Magical leaf!" Gardenia ordered, urgency in her voice. Cherrim's ability was . . .

Well, Dawn couldn't remember the name of the ability, but she knew it was something that could power up the owner as well as any Pokémon with the owner as long as they were in strong sunlight. Gardenia would want to maximize on that ability and get as many of Dawn's Pokémon out of action as she could before the weather wore off.

Sunny day wouldn't last long. Dawn considered water sport, but decided against it. The water sport would be too weak to actually cancel out the sunny day, while the moisture would aid the Cherrim as well. While sunny day would help grass types by aiding the process of photosynthesis all grass types could use to some extent, it used up more of their resources, even more so if they had an ability like the one Cherrim did, the one with the name she couldn't remember. Water in the air would replenish what the Cherrim used to get the power up in the sun.

No, she'd have to have Neptune go physical with this one as well. "Peck ahead, with metal claw!"

He dove into the magical leaf barrage, batting at the glowing projectiles with both of his glowing flippers scratching at the air. His beak glowing, he began to peck at the flower when he reached it.

The magical leaves stopped for a moment before returning with a vengeance. Neptune pecked even faster and harder, clearly wanting to finish the Cherrim before the flower finished him off.

Dawn couldn't see the Cherrim well enough because of the magical leaves and the glow of the spells on them, but Neptune looked tired. Tired enough for torrent to be triggered.

The water would hurt – even if the Cherrim took in the miniscule amount to refill its resources, it wouldn't be enough to make _too_ much of a difference. Perhaps a torrent-powered bubble beam could –

No. Sunny day was still going. That cut down any power boost torrent gave it.

Neptune buckled, at last, and fell on his front. The magical leaves scattered down to the ground when they found themselves without a target. As they did so, the last dregs of a green light leaving Neptune to go to the Cherrim were visible.

Dawn had seen that green light before, used by the pre-evolution of Cherrim. "Did you use a leech seed?" she asked as she returned Neptune. The Cherrim looked to be in relatively good health considering what it had gone through, but a leech seed would explain its resilience.

Leech seeds – that was to say, botanical parasites with just enough consciousness to enter a body marked with the user's pheromones as a 'foe' and sap its energy before sending as much of it as possible back to its creator. It could not live without a host, which was why if it didn't enter a living creature – as even ghosts could be affected by the seeds – it would die soon. But once it got in, then it sapped away at any Pokémon's strengths until the infected used some method to get rid of it.

It had been one of the main reasons why she had lost to that aroma lady in the first tournament she had ever entered. She'd done so much research on that one move after losing to it yet she hadn't even noticed it, even when it had been used by a Cherubi on her the first time.

If that wasn't learning from her lessons . . . this was embarrassing, for sure.

"That's right," Gardenia nodded.

The referee reminded Dawn to send out her next Pokémon. Dawn decided against sending in Minerva – a leech seed in her wouldn't be good – and chose Sekhmet.

The Luxio let out a yowl to announce her presence when she landed on the field, intimidating her foe and making the Cherrim back down slightly in fear. Just as she finished, the harsh sunlight toned down – sunny day was over. Without the light around, the Cherrim closed its cloak around itself once more and became a shy-looking purple blossom.

"Sekhmet, take it down. But be careful," she added hastily, "it has leech seed. Go with charge."

Her Luxio remembered leech seed, specifically losing an important battle because of it, and had no intention on suffering its grip again. Sekhmet charged up, letting the electricity fill her fur. She eyed the space between her and her foe, and then began stepping up to the grass type. When magical leaves were released, she used a spark to protect herself from the worst of the damage by frying the leaves that flew in to hit her and weakening their strength.

Once she was in lunging distance, she leapt onto the Cherrim, moving at a much more abrupt pace than the careful one she'd used to make her way over. The Cherrim didn't stand a chance. Sekhmet pinned the flower down like the hunter she was, and bit down at the flower's face.

It was almost like a kiss, because Sekhmet's bite was over the Cherrim's mouth to prevent the grass type from firing off any more leech seeds, especially while Sekhmet was still in close proximity. Except it wasn't – it was clearly painful, and the Cherrim screamed in a muffled manner, unable to fully open its mouth.

Still biting, Sekhmet ran a spark before yanking up the Cherrim – _still_ biting – and throwing the grass type back at the ground. "Magical leaf, with grass knot!" Gardenia shouted urgently as Sekhmet lunged again, this time with her body surrounded by electricity.

The Cherrim shook its purple petal cloaks and released the spell-cast leaves from its folds. Sekhmet ignored the strikes that managed to make it through the spark and threw her body on top of the Cherrim, essentially crushing the grass type with an electric weight while she bit at every part of the flower Pokémon she could reach. Under the heavier Pokémon, the Cherrim shrieked and struggled for a bit, trying to throw the electric type off of itself. Even with its resistance to electricity, there was no denying that the shocks were painful.

Not only that, but the shocks, bright and blinding, kept it from seeing with its own eyes where the next bite would be. It struggled, but Sekhmet outlasted it. Eventually, it stopped moving and the referee declared it Sekhmet's win.

The Luxio got up and licked at her paw, looking too pleased with herself for her own good. "Good job," Dawn called. She'd been vicious, but it had been all under her control. Sekhmet had, in fact, done a good job.

Gardenia nodded, talking to her Pokémon as she recalled it. Then, she took out the last ball and let her last fighter out.

White petals arranged artfully like a rose or a delicate hairstyle on the head. A dark green mask, with lighter green 'skin' on the face under. Red rose bouquets on the right 'hand', blue ones on bunched on the left. A dark green 'cloak' hanging off of its back, rustling with leaves and bristling with hidden thorns.

The Roserade purred.

Roserade happened to be the signature Pokémon of Gardenia. Dawn wasn't sure whether this Roserade happened to be the famous Rubia of her main battling team – the one used in tournaments and grand-scale events – or one of her offspring, but this was the 'boss battle'.

"Charge again, then spark."

"Viridian, stun spore."

So it wasn't her famous Roserade, just a different one she used in battles against gym challengers.

Sekhmet took in a deep breath like she'd been trained before actively seeking to avoid getting her face near the cloud of golden spores. She wasn't as good at avoiding these as Frejya or Minerva, but she could hold her breath and get out of the immediate vicinity of these things before they managed to seep through her skin and affect her through there.

Except, well, she couldn't get out of the immediate vicinity because to do so was to lose the only way to attack the Roserade. Sekhmet decided to back up, out of the cloud, take in another breath of air and then charge ahead, stun spore be damned.

When she began to back up, Viridian lifted the blue bouquet. From between the roses, a few darts were fired and imbedded into Sekhmet's forelegs. The Luxio yelped, and instinctively drew in breath before beginning to cough.

Dawn winced in empathy. Sekhmet had breathed in the spores.

But Sekhmet was stubborn. Ignoring the paralysis spreading through her lungs and the poison stings being fired at her, she charged up again and – this time not having to worry about more status effects – ran with a spark. Her limbs were beginning to stiffen and shake with the paralysis taking effect, but she pushed herself forward to deliver the spark on the Roserade's chest.

The force of the spark let her knock the Roserade down. On top of the grass and poison type, Sekhmet bit and bit until the Roserade recovered from the flinch to release a full-frontal magical leaf, right in several critical areas like her face and neck. Sekhmet yowled, and Viridian took advantage of that to throw the electric type off of her.

One final magical leaf attack finished Sekhmet off, leaving her opponent panting but still very much conscious and good to fight. Viridian lifted the red bouquet to her face, looking like she was wiping sweat off the area around her mouth.

"Thank you," Dawn told Sekhmet as she returned her. "Minerva, you're up!"

She made sure to let the Noctowl out in the air. Minerva took a second to assess the situation and then dove in, ready to peck the grass type to oblivion. She made sure to hold her breath in case of spore attacks.

Viridian straightened. She looked better rested than she had a few seconds ago, almost as she'd recovered from her damages somehow. It couldn't have been an attack that simultaneously recovered health like absorb . . . but it definitely wasn't synthesis either.

A berry, maybe?

Minerva began to peck away at the Roserade, but the grass type was used to dealing with aerial attackers. She held her bouquet arms out to hold off Minerva, keeping her from hurting vital spots on her torso. Minerva tried to maneuver to attack from the back, but all the Roserade had to do was simply turn and shift her weight so that she was facing Minerva again.

Essentially, Minerva was stuck.

And she'd been hoping to get a quick sweep, too.

Well, grass types weren't the only ones capable of inflicting status. "Hypnosis," Dawn said.

Minerva's eyes began to glow. The Roserade stopped resisting, and fell onto her back in forced slumber.

Letting out a quiet hoot of satisfaction, the Noctowl descended to peck away at the sleeping grass type in her leisure. She grounded herself, deciding that she could roost and not have to use energy to keep aloft while her foe was helpless.

"Now!" Gardenia barked.

"Get back in the air!" Dawn screamed as Viridian's eyes flew open, wide and clear eyes showing that the Roserade had only pretended to be hypnotized. Minerva, startled, tried to fly back up, but a burst of stun spores caught her off-guard. In her surprise at the cloud shot into her face, the bird inhaled and almost immediately began coughing. She couldn't get out of the way in time to avoid the following, more damaging burst of magical leaves. All of the enchanted, glowing leaves shot into her torso, making the Noctowl squawk in pain.

The pain, however, managed to make Minerva break through the grip of paralysis and fly back up, relatively out of range. Peck wasn't as viable now, with Minerva slowed down, but there was still uproar.

"Grass knot!"

Grass knot was a move that tripped up the Pokémon and caused them damage according to their weight. Or, at least that was what Dawn knew about the move. She had always assumed that it would only work on grounded Pokémon.

Viridian slammed the two bouquets on its arm into the ground, and Dawn's eyes widened in surprise as strands of grass as wide as her hand and thick as pamphlets rose out of the ground, glowing and thrashing like a pair of Gyarados ascending into the heavens from the whirlpool of waterfalls in Mt. Coronet. Minerva, too, let out a hoot of surprise before the grass caught her and slammed her down onto the ground.

The referee deemed Minerva unable to battle.

That day, Dawn learned two things. One, grass knot could reach even fliers in the hands – or bouquets – of talented and/or well-trained Pokémon. Two, losing was not a good feeling.

* * *

After stepping into the emergency express lineup and handing all her Pokémon over, Dawn snuck off to the bathroom. She walked into the stall furthest from the entrance and locked the swinging door before where she cried in one of the stalls quietly. Just a bit.

Losing was something she wasn't quite used to. Sure, she'd lost in the Jubilife tournament, but back then she had expected to lose, to not do as well as she had. At most she had expected to reach quarter finals.

Here, she had believed that she would win. Despite Barry having warned her of Gardenia's toughness, Dawn had assumed that strength would be enough to carry her over once she had dealt with the standard grass type's strengths.

She had underestimated her opponent, and it had cost her. It was a bitter feeling that made her throat constrict and her eyes burn with tears she tried to hold back. Dawn almost dreaded facing her Pokémon again.

She wanted to be Champion. Yet she'd lost against the second gym leader. How was she supposed to be strong enough to protect Sinnoh, to protect her home if she couldn't even beat the second gym leader?

Dawn let herself wallow in her angst for a while, ignoring the logic and reasoning in her that told her how one mistake didn't automatically mean she was a failure. Once the ten minute waiting time was up, though, she washed her face with cold water, redid her hair, straightened her hat and took several deep breaths to even out her breathing. She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The skin around her eyes, despite her best efforts, was still slightly puffy and red, but Dawn was determined to ignore the swelled feeling.

When her throat constricted at the thought of facing her Pokémon, she gave herself a light slap on the cheek. Time to steel up.

Dawn stepped out of the bathroom and went up to pick up her Pokémon from the nurse. Grabbing their balls, she marched to the room she was staying in and entered before shutting the door and locking it. This was between her and her Pokémon, and no one else.

She nearly faltered when she saw the four Poké balls, wanting to somehow run away and not deal with the shame of losing, but then she hardened her heart. Life wasn't kind. If she cried and whined and tried to run away from every single problem –

Well, she might as well have been a spoiled, rich, bratty kid, dependent on her family's fortunes instead of making something for herself out there in the world. Whatever she made in the world, she wanted it to be meaningful.

And sometimes, meaningful meant painful.

She released her Pokémon in the room that they were setting base in. "So we lost," she began bluntly.

Minerva hung her head in shame. "It's no one's fault," she said, patting the Noctowl on her back. Minerva must have felt particularly terrible. She had evolved after taking down one of the mandatory gym trainers, just like Neptune had, but that hadn't stopped Gardenia from curb-stomping them all. "You were amazing. Remember how none of the trainers could stand up to you? Hm?"

Then she turned to Frejya. "You were awesome. Remember how you just punched through that counter shield like it was nothing? Gardenia was so surprised when you were all, 'pfft, this is nothing' and just went right through, and that Turtwig was all 'holy crap this Buneary'."

Sekhmet, she had to wrestle the fact that it hadn't been her fault into her stubborn head. "You were fine. Just fine. Now stop moping! Where's your usual swag, huh? Where's the Sekhmet that terrorizes Starly and gets ketchup around her mouth?"

For that she got a half-hearted nip on her fingers. It wasn't enough to draw blood, but it stung. Dawn took the same finger and flicked the Luxio's forehead. From there, it moved on into a Growlithe pile on Sekhmet. The Luxio, after even Frejya had joined in, gave off a few charges to warn her teammates, but there was a grin on her face, especially after Dawn began tickling her sides with squirming fingers.

Once making Sekhmet cheer up was successful, Dawn got back onto her feet. One Pokémon hadn't joined the Growlithe pile – the one that should have been the first to jump and join in.

The leader of her team sat, stony faced and quiet, in the corner of the room. Knowing him and his pride, Neptune was probably punishing himself by cutting off any sources of fun and happiness.

That wasn't what she wanted the leader of her team doing. She went to the corner and reached out to grab his flipper.

Neptune yanked his flipper back, and then in a small fit he pecked at her hand. Hard. Dawn stared at the spot he had pecked, watching the blood drawn out by the peck. The pain hit after the blood had beaded, but the stinging sensation was nothing compared to the shock.

Neptune had never intentionally hurt her before. Sure, a few lighthearted slaps back when he'd been a Piplup, or that accidental peck every now and then when she was close up to him while he pecked to observe him in the middle of an attack, but never on purpose.

Neptune grimaced at the spot of blood on her hand, but he didn't make any signs of apologizing. He held his stance.

Dawn clenched her fist. _He_ knew he felt sorry, _she_ knew he felt sorry, why couldn't he just give up on past things and let his pride go?

She was about to raise her voice at him, demanding that he give up on this self-inflicted punishment and make him see things from the right point of view when she remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She was supposed to be killing ego.

And it wasn't exactly killing ego when she imposed her own opinions onto others through force. That just made her as bad as any common bully, just as bad as Inferno.

The wound throbbed under the pressure of her clenching her hand into a fist, and she let it go. It still hurt, but it wasn't serious. She'd been hurt worse before because of either hers or Barry's stupidity. This was nothing.

She couldn't very well impose her own opinions onto him. Neptune, with his pride, would just reject it for the sake of upholding his principles. They would make up – eventually, hopefully – but tension in partnerships weakened them.

Mespirit's temples taught those that attended to emphasize; to wear the shoes of others and see through their eyes before judging them.

Dawn reached out again, but didn't touch Neptune. She just held her hand out – the one not bleeding – and held it up, waiting as she looked through the eyes of her first partner.

Neptune, she knew, was like her. He was proud, he liked to lead and he liked to win. He had ambition burning in his belly, and the willpower to see that ambition put to good use.

And right now, after a loss that was a blow to his pride, he was punishing himself to make sure that it never happened again. He never wanted to lose again, to never feel that bitter sense of loss she had felt while crying in the bathroom.

Ideally, she would want that too. To never lose, to always win no matter what sounded great to her.

Realistically, she knew she would lose sometimes, at the very least. It was one of the many lessons her mother and Palmer had drilled into her, over and over again. To never expect to always win was the best thing she could do for herself, they had told her.

It was hard to do. She wanted to win. Being the _Champion_ meant not _losing_.

But they were right. Dawn couldn't expect to always win – that much was obvious from the day's failed gym challenge. And if she wanted her team to do the same and accept that without being bitter or crushed, then the team leader had to be a good role model.

"You're my team leader," she said quietly. "What kind of an example are you going to set for everyone else if you just brood in the corner moping?"

Dawn chanced a look behind her back. Sekhmet, Frejya and Minerva weren't exactly the types to smile and offer high fives or group hugs of shining, friendship-loaded support – those would probably have to be instigated by a later member, possibly Mystery Egg's inhabitant, or herself in the future – but they stood strong and expectantly. They had accepted him as the leader of the team, but he had to show them why he deserved the spot. Being the trainer's starter Pokémon just wasn't good enough of a reason. He had to prove himself.

And if there was one way to mend a bruised pride, it was to offer a challenge to prove oneself. To redeem oneself.

Neptune held still for a few moments longer before his shoulders slumped. He reached out and slapped his flipper into her waiting palm as if he was exasperated.

Dawn smiled at the progress. Her smile only widened further when Neptune patted her bleeding hand to wipe away the red as best as he could. He tried to not look concerned, but his façade was broken when she winced at the rough way he tried to brush off the blood and he squawked an apology instinctively.

Alright, she was instigating that group hug. She herded all of her Pokémon together before gathering them up in her admittedly short arms and hugging them all to the best of her ability.

Neptune protested, and Sekhmet joined his complaining. Minerva and Frejya bore it stoically, and Dawn knew they were all alright.

Eventually she had to let them out from the circle of group hugging. "You all tried your best," she said, "and followed my strategy perfectly, so if anyone made a mistake, it's me. I should have come up with a back-up strategy, and we should have trained for a few more days before challenging the gym. We should have backed out when Minerva evolved, so she could get used to her new form. I shouldn't have just challenged the gym so early, actually – that was just cocky on my part. And I can keep listing all the maybes that could have happened if only this or that, or we can go and train."

In the end it had been her fault – she had been arrogant. Just because they had won Oreburgh's badge in one shot without days of proper preparing before, just because Neptune had been able to adapt to evolving in the middle of the challenge, just because she had been overconfident and assumed that Eterna would be the same as the last gym, they had lost.

And why had she been so arrogant, so sure they could win without working? Part of it was because of the easy time they had with Oreburgh's gym, sure, but there was also Barry, who had swept into the city and earned the badge before she had even set foot in Eterna.

Just because she had tried to go by Barry's speed, they had lost.

The loss was humbling, and left a bitter taste in her mouth. Dawn decided that she'd have to get rid of arrogance – murder it – just so she wouldn't have to taste it again. She couldn't become Champion of Sinnoh if she was going to be arrogant and blind.

She was Dawn Steele. She was privileged, ambitious and she was going to become Champion. _She_ set the pace. The pace, the scale she used to measure herself was _her_ own, and no one else's. Not another Champion in some other region, not other trainers around herself, not her family's, not even her rival and long-time friend's. _Hers_.

And it was time she remembered that.

She took a deep breath in to replenish the oxygen she had lost while pep-talking. "So what's it going to be?"

They all agreed that training and learning a new strategy would be better. Dawn carried the egg hamper out, and they made their way to Route 211, where a ninja boy bragged that he would easily defeat them. Minerva took him out singlehandedly without even breaking a sweat, outmaneuvering the ninja's Pokémon at every turn.

"See?" she said to the Noctowl, who held considerably more self-esteem in herself than before the battle.

"Dawn?"

Neptune gave a caw of recognition as he saw the boy with the blue hair and strangely shaped hat. Dawn waved when she saw Lucas, and a Monferno that had to be Charlotte at his side. "Hey, Lucas," she gave him a nod. "Working hard and catching Pokémon for the Pokédex, I see."

"I've been working on it," he said modestly. "I've been checking out the Sinnoh Underground as well, in hopes of finding a few fossils. You?"

She gestured around at her four. "Mostly seeing and recording. How's life for you?"

Lucas patted Charlotte's head when she tugged at his pant legs. "Good. Not attacked by any thugs recently, if that counts. What about you? Have you challenged the gym yet?"

"I have," she made a face. "And because of my poor judgement, we lost."

Her Pokémon all protested. Even Frejya made a start, making the soothe bell around her neck jingle.

"I think they disagree," Lucas noted with just the hint of amusement audible in his voice.

"Oh well," Dawn shrugged, trying to hide her pleased reaction. Was it arrogant to be happy that one's Pokémon would stand up for one's sake? Probably, but it made her too happy to really care as much as she should have. "We'll win next time."

Because it was nearing noon and the two of them had already conducted their business within the area – Lucas captured members of species native to the region and then released them after taking down data for his Pokédex, Dawn took down the few trainers present with ease – they decided to drop by somewhere to eat.

"If you're having a hard time with Gardenia," he suggested as they chatted while in line for some food at a local restaurant. "Why not catch a fire Pokémon?"

Dawn made a sound that didn't promise much commitment. "I don't know," she said. "I have four members on my team already. I mean, I'll probably catch more Pokémon, but still. Right now it feels like I've got more than enough on my hands. It's still early in the stage, you know? Besides," she added. "The only ones really in the area are Ponyta, and I'm not a fan of them."

"You don't like Ponyta?" he asked, surprised at the thought of a girl not liking a pony to give them rides.

"I don't really have a good experience with them."

When she had been eight, her mother had signed her up for riding lessons. Ponyta could control the fire of their mane to not burn the rider, but the one she'd ridden had been young, and not as good with its control. When a loud sound had startled it, Dawn's butt had been set on fire. She hadn't been burned, but Dawn was still a bit traumatized, as well as absolutely mortified that the really good-looking, older riding instructor had seen her in such a state.

Well, not _traumatized_. But she didn't really like the idea of using a fiery horse.

"Oh. Well, how about borrowing Charlotte?"

The fire monkey started at his words. Dawn noticed. "Thanks," she tried to sound as grateful and sincere as possible. Not all boys were incredibly resilient like Barry, but she was pretty sure that they weren't exactly fragile glass either. Her problem simply lay in gauging their strength and making sure she didn't scar or scare them too much. "But I don't think I'll feel that it's our victory until we work towards it ourselves. Besides, you should have asked Charlotte that question first. She looks a bit hurt."

Lucas looked thunderstruck, and then began to apologize to Charlotte. The fire monkey took it all in good humour.

The conversation turned, then, to strategies she could use in battle. "I rushed, and tried to push through with power," she admitted, flushing a bit. "And she definitely had strategies to deal with that. Hey, don't judge."

"I won't," he promised, straight-faced.

Dawn, not quite believing him, finished the last of her fried Magikarp and chips. "Can you just watch over this for a moment?" she gently pushed the egg hamper towards him. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Alright," Lucas said.

Dawn began to walk away . . . but stopped from going in completely. When Lucas made a gesture of questioning at her, she responded by pointing at the door, then making exaggerated movements with her hand. A lineup. A _long_ lineup.

Dawn was gone from eyesight when the basket she had entrusted him began to glow.

Lucas yelped, unsure about what to do. Did he yell for Dawn? But she was in the bathroom and probably couldn't hear him unless he went in and –

No, he wasn't going to finish that thought.

"What do I do?" he whispered out a wail of despair. Despite all the time he had spent in Professor Rowan's laboratory studying Pokémon, this was the first experience he had dealing with an egg hatching. The professor specialized in evolution, not breeding.

Was he supposed to hold it? What if he was supposed to do something and he didn't? Would that result in the Pokémon getting hurt?

Lucas grimaced. He was probably never going to be ready for fatherhood.

Charlotte was smarter and simply opened the hamper just in time to see an egg hatch into a Togepi.

The baby Pokémon appeared to be perfectly healthy, much to his relief. He gave it a small smile and waved awkwardly, unsure of what to do. He was unprepared for the huge smile the baby Pokémon gave him. The small newborn in the remnants of the white shell squealed and threw itself into his arms. Somehow, despite the shock of a baby Pokémon hatching in front of him, he managed to catch him. In his arms, the Togepi cooed and burrowed closer to his chest.

Flabbergasted, he stuttered out what had happened to Dawn when she returned and didn't understand why she slapped her forehead and groaned.

All the while, the Togepi clung to him happily.

* * *

AN: According to Bulbapedia and BW2, there was a bug catcher/gym leader in Sinnoh that quit his job to be E4. I gave him more of a backstory because Sinnoh's E4 are almost boring in their lack of a background. Except Flint, but he's like the only exception.

So ORAS and the Delta Episode (or the Bombshell, as I like to call it). Surprisingly, it actually fits into what I had planned in this universe with just a few tweaks (omg Zinnia I want to ship her with AZ for some reason she's so cool).

Special thanks to delcatty546, who helped me write the battle scene.


	10. The Immeasurable Treasures

A.S.107

July 27th

_Why do people hurt each other? Why do people have to hurt each other? _

* * *

Lucas 'let' her name the Togepi, since she'd been carrying him around and all. Dawn 'let' him keep the Togepi – Cupid, for the white wings of its evolutions – since he refused to let go of the other boy.

"So much like Lyra's," she muttered, thinking of what to tell her over their chats later. On one hand, their jokes had hit the nail dead-on. On the other, no Togepi wedding.

Professor Rowan's youngest aide had to go on. "I'll be seeing you around," he said. Cupid had initially thrown a tantrum when he was about to be put in a Poké ball, but after Charlotte demonstrated going in and coming out safely, had gone in quietly.

"Bye."

The boy went off on his bike. Dawn let her hand drop before she raced against her Pokémon to the nearest patch of grass. She lost, but that was fine.

Now that she no longer had an egg to take care of, she was no longer spared from the intense training. Dawn had to run and keep up with the others even when she felt like she was going to die of muscle failure.

Neptune poked at her ribs when she collapsed, her legs too much like jelly to support her weight. "I know," she sighed. "You think I shouldn't have given Cupid to Lucas."

Another poke. _So why did you?_

"Because Cupid looked so happy with Lucas!" she threw her hands up slightly. "He did that weird maternal imprint thing with Lucas and I didn't want to have to break that. Losing a parent isn't fun," she added quietly.

Her starter understood after that, and let her off. They had a lot of newbies, anyways, he told himself, and no time to be taking care of babies.

When she caught her breath, Dawn grabbed her bag and took out ropes made into different knots. "We're going to practice tripping and falling," she told everyone. Grass knot damaged the foe by tripping them through the manipulation of grass. If her Pokémon knew how to fall properly like kids learning martial arts or gymnastics did, then the damage caused by grass knot would – theoretically – be lessened because they would know how to lessen the impact of hitting the ground.

She had borrowed a few mats from the Eterna Gym so that they could get used to falling and instinctively go into the safer falling position when they were in actual battle. The storage room had been well stocked with lots of good, thick mats. Apparently, she wasn't the first to have Pokémon practice falling either.

Now, dragging up memories from her youth back when she learned martial arts and research she'd done to refresh her memory, Dawn began to talk. "When you're falling forward – which you'll most likely be doing a lot – you want to bend at your knees so you fold forwards."

She demonstrated, folding her body so that the impact was lost. "Then you slap your palms to the ground and turn your face while making sure that your head doesn't directly hit the ground."

This was doable for Neptune and Frejya, whose body shapes were similar to a humans enough for them to emulate what she had done. Sekhmet and Minerva just looked at her, not even bothering to try it out.

Dawn told Neptune and Frejya to practice falling on a mat each, and then moved onto the other two Pokémon. "For you," she told Minerva, "when you're being yanked down from the air you make sure that your wings will be safe. Keep them stretched to the sky so that even when a grass knot slams you to the ground, they won't twist or break or anything. After that initial tug, there should be wiggle room in your binds. You have to be quick and get out of the knots before they tighten on you, and to do that your wings need to be ready to go whenever."

They would practice this with Minerva being yanked down onto the ground with the use of a rope knotted around one of her legs. The Noctowl wasn't thrilled at the idea of being constantly yanked down and ruffling her feathers, but Dawn promised that it wouldn't be done too harshly, and she recognized the validity behind it. She didn't want to lose the larger wings of a Noctowl, and she wanted better control over them.

As for Sekhmet, grass knot was going to be tricky. If it was a knot around one leg, it would be easier to recover because she had three other legs and a tail to regain balance, or at least cushion her fall.

If it was more than one leg incapacitated, though, that made it harder to recover from. Any combination of legs being tied down by grass knot was going to be hard.

This problem gave Dawn a bit of trouble. Eventually, it was decided that Sekhmet would try to rip and bite her way out of grass knots to the best of her ability, and fall with her face to the side and tongue tucked firmly away from her teeth to minimize injuries. Sekhmet had to practice throwing herself down onto the mat-covered ground without falling chin-first or biting her tongue. If she was less hurt or stunned by the fall, they could get up faster.

Dawn watched them all fall on purpose and then get right back up to do it all over again. None of them complained, even if it was obviously uncomfortable. They were just as determined as she was to get it right, and one loss wasn't going to stop them from getting right back onto their feet.

There was other training to do after the falling practice was done. Minerva's aerial manoeuvring needed work, and the rest of them needed to have some sort of strategy in mind before the next gym battle. If they didn't practice and prepare, they would lose.

But at that moment, watching them get right back onto their feet after every fall gave her a lot of hope.

* * *

"Back so soon?" Gardenia asked.

"You bet," Dawn said, releasing Minerva, who let out a quiet but deadly sounding hoot.

Nodding, Gardenia started with the same Pokémon – a sturdy Turtwig.

Last time, she had relied on power and speed to push through. Pound away with rock smashes and quick attacks and hope that it would work. Because of her experience with Champ, she had thought she knew how to deal with it.

Last time, it hadn't worked. Gardenia's Pokémon had retaliated. Other than the Turtwig, the other two had been quick enough to strike back or hold off her assaults.

So this time, Dawn started off with Minerva, and not just attacking but doing something else entirely. "Hypnosis," she said. Fight status with status. If Gardenia wanted to make the battles long and dragged out, she had to be ready for the attrition and throw in her own dragging into the battle.

Mo the Turtwig blinked, and suddenly deadly serious eyes were looking into his own. They were swirling – almost – and the soft hoots given as commands were so nice to follow . . . .

He didn't even hear his own trainer shouting his name as he slipped off into sleep. His body struggled with the imposed sleep, but by the time he struggled to awake it was too late. Minerva struck the finishing blow and flew up into the air while her foe slumped into the grassy field, all without Dawn giving her a single command after the first one. Loud noises, unless they were something along the lines of an uproar attack, normally didn't wake up Pokémon forced into sleep. Despite that, Dawn didn't want anything to contribute to the foe waking up, noises included.

That was what they had devoted themselves to after the first day of training as a way to stop the foe's Pokémon from wrecking them. In the first challenge attempt Dawn had been reluctant to use hypnosis because it wasn't as reliable as she would have liked, but this was a chance she was willing to take. Forced into sleep on the battlefield, the gym leader's Pokémon would be incapable of attacking for the short period of time their bodies struggled to wake up from the imposed temporary coma in the face of danger. A short time, admittedly, but during which most of their defenses would have been dropped, leaving them as helpless, sitting Psyduck.

It was a gamble worth taking.

The plan was, Minerva would put them to sleep before attacking them continuously with peck. Dawn gave no other verbal commands to let the hypnosis stay on as long as possible. She didn't have to – the foe was knocked out, and no other instructions were necessary after that.

"Sleep handicap," Gardenia noted, recalling her Turtwig. She was smirking, though. "Very smart. Cerise, safeguard."

_That_ hadn't come up in the last battle. "Hypnosis, go!" Dawn shouted, a bit more frantic now. If safeguard got up, then Gardenia was free to essentially wreak havoc. Cherrim would put up a fight, and if Minerva expended too much of herself taking it down, then she wouldn't be able to last long against that Roserade of hers. She could switch, of course, but that would make her lose her momentum, and to properly pull off hypnosis they needed all the momentum they could get.

The flower Pokémon, under her shy violet cloak, began to chant the spells for the mystical veil softly, but Minerva swept down unexpectedly and let out a hoot that could have been a snarl much like Sekhmet's through her beak – something the Noctowl had picked up from hanging around the intimidating Luxio that was her teammate. Surprised, Cerise hesitated in her spell-casting.

"Go!"

Minerva didn't need to be told twice. She began to hoot, softly but urgently, drawing her foe into a hypnotic spell.

Cerise slumped, and Minerva began to peck at the purple petal cloak. Time was of the utmost and –

"Hoot?!" Minerva made a strangled hoot of surprise and flew up into the air, away from the foe. The Cherrim hopped away, clearly awake as the Noctowl began to circle in the air, doing several acrobatic tricks. Almost like she was trying to shake something off.

"Back," Dawn ordered, and Minerva rose higher. She didn't stop her constant, near-frantic movements, though.

By now the safeguard was up for sure, which meant that for some time hypnosis was useless. The question was whether she continued to use Minerva or –

Something green glinted in the air. Dawn stopped thinking and stared again. There – right there, a small green light that didn't have a source in any of the gym's plentiful flora. In fact, it looked like grains of shiny green dust leading to the Cherrim.

Minerva was still doing her tricks up in the air, out of reach as Dawn had ordered, but her movements were clearly slowing at a rate faster than it should have been. Like she was paralyzed – unlikely – or losing health steadily. Losing health steadily as someone – or some_thing_ – sapped at her stamina.

Cerise. _Leech seeds_.

Dawn wanted something like defog that could remove the leech seeds so she wouldn't have to give up her momentum and let Minerva wreak havoc on the grass types. She had to settle for returning Minerva instead. Like she had suspected, something green fell to the ground where it squirmed and wiggled for a few moments before falling still.

"That was a leech seed," she said to Gardenia, who smiled widely. She should have picked up on that sooner and realized just why Minerva was making those movements. Instead, she'd been distracted by the safeguard that had gone through to realize immediately.

Lucky a simple recall was more than enough to remove it from the infected Pokémon. After calling Minerva back to her ball, but hesitated on sending the next Pokémon. Who to send? And, while making the choice, Dawn tried to stall to wear down at the spell cast on the other side. Cerise the Cherrim hopped a few times around on the arena, healthy and ready to fight with the mystic glow of the safeguard still going strong. And there was still that Roserade to be dealt with, too.

After a few more seconds of thought – even that was really pushing it, judging from the stink-eye the referee gave her – Dawn sent out Frejya.

Buneary were one of the many Pokémon that only evolved with high levels of 'happiness'. Exactly what determined this factor for Pokémon in the wild was still being investigated – Professor Rowan being one of the lead researchers after he had debunked the former theory of a high-enough dopamine release – but in captivity, it was the connection the Pokémon felt with its trainer that pushed them over to evolve.

Unfortunately, Dawn and Frejya weren't close enough for the Buneary to have evolved into Lopunny.

That didn't mean that she couldn't fight. "Quick attack," Dawn ordered. "Keep an eye out, she's got safeguard up to stop any statuses. It's that shiny glow around the Cherrim."

In a brown and tan blur of movement, Frejya leapt close before body-checking the Cherrim. When the flower Pokémon was knocked over, Frejya didn't stop moving and continued her quick movements until she was out of physical range.

That wasn't a problem for the gym leader. "Follow her with magical leaf," Gardenia ordered calmly. "And use the Buneary's momentum to cause more damage when you can."

Cerise fluttered her purple cloak, and a handful of leaves beginning to glow green detached before shooting out, edges sharp and eager to gouge flesh. Every last one of them hit the Buneary, spade-like leaves cutting and slicing Frejya's skin. Unlike tennis balls and razor leaves, magical leaves simply couldn't be avoided without some external aid. Their magic ensured that they hit their targets.

But she still stood, and the distance made the magical leaves lose some of their strength, after having to travel the extra expanse to reach Frejya. More importantly, the Cherrim hadn't _closed_ the distance achieved through quick attack's continuation. It wasn't a far distance – a few meters, maybe a bit less – but it was close enough for Frejya to watch over the silver glow Dawn had pointed out to her.

Before Dawn could get Frejya to do anything else, though, the glow faded from the Cherrim's body – safeguard had expired. Cherrim immediately began to chant to recast and renew the spell. No time to change for Minerva.

Frejya didn't need to be told that there was an opening. She charged with another quick attack, striking on target again. This time, instead of moving away, she stayed and began to smash the plant Pokémon's body with both her ears, putting enough force behind the punches to smash through weakened rocks.

The grass type winced at the blows to her torso, but didn't relent her chanting. The safeguard sprang back up a few seconds later, and once the defenses were covered Cerise was ready to fight back to defend herself and take down her foe.

Gardenia didn't choose to counter with magical leaf again. This time, she decided to go with – "Grass knot!"

The grass sprang forwards to move, snaking and knotting seemingly on its own just like it had during the last gym battle as if it had a will of its own. The knots all surged towards the foe Pokémon, eager to hold down a foe and tangle them up into tripping down. Frejya's feet tangled up and the grass yanked insistently, knocking her off of her feet and slamming her into the ground. Frejya fell like she was supposed to, reducing the overall damage, but when her back was vulnerable Cerise spat some leech seeds onto it and planted them firmly.

Dawn returned her and opted to send out her Luxio, the one that had taken down Cerise last time. Sekhmet, finally out, charged immediately without any preamble and began to tear at the weakened Cherrim with vicious bites, intent on a repeat performance. Worn out, Cerise finally fell unconscious.

Gardenia recalled her. After thanking the Cherrim, she pulled out the last Poké ball.

As Dawn predicted, it was the Roserade – Viridian – again. The Cherrim's last safeguard was still up – hypnosis was still out of the viable options.

But that was fine, it could still work. Sekhmet was switched for Frejya, who knew what to do.

Gardenia, though, understood what she was up to. "Quick attack to close the distance and either escape after a quick hit," she noted as Frejya surged past the Roserade, "or to get there fast, right?"

Leaves, suddenly glowing green, were pulled from surrounding shrubs and sprinkled in the air instead of being pulled from Viridian. They tracked and followed Frejya as she made a turn and used another quick attack to hit at Viridian. Not even one of them accidentally hit the Roserade even when Frejya was jumping and making hairpin swerves. They hit hard, not losing power behind their strikes from distance like other magical leaves did.

So Viridian had enough power over the magical leaves to make sure that quick movements weren't enough to weaken their blows, not even by a Buneary's speed. That, and she could also use leaves from other places just as well as hers. It wouldn't only be frontal attacks she'd have to worry about getting hit from. Dawn made note of that as Frejya began to charge towards the Roserade in her third quick attack.

"Grass knot."

She'd been expecting this, but it didn't make it any less painful for her to watch when Frejya tripped. Luckily for both of them Frejya was light, and didn't take as much damage as she reduced her impact to the ground in perfect falling form. She was up again after quickly kicking off the knots that had loosened with her fall, stoic as always.

Gardenia saw, and changed tactics according to what she was presented with. "Poison sting."

"Quick attack!"

It wasn't one poisoned barb that was shot out from the Roserade's deceptively pretty rose bouquets, but dozens, far more than during the last challenge. Frejya dodged a lot of them, but she was hit too, peppered with the poisonous stingers.

She still charged towards the Roserade. Hitting with one more quick attack, she did just as Gardenia had predicted and stayed. Then, she began to punch with both her ears in consecutive rock smashes again. Dawn didn't tell her to do something different.

Gardenia frowned in puzzlement at that choice. It was one of the rarer type matchups and she was pretty young, so perhaps Challenger Dawn didn't know that poison types resisted fighting types?

And she had seemed like such a smart trainer, too. Right now, this was a third or even a fourth-badge level kind of battle she was getting.

Dawn was hoping she would have been able to tell when it happened, but just like how Gardenia hadn't yet noticed what Frejya had been up to in the times between the quick attack-dodges, she couldn't see as closely as she would have liked. It was, after all, based on luck. Luck and chance. She could have gotten the results she'd been after in the first few seconds of the engagement, or she might not be able to get it before Frejya fainted.

She had to bite the insides of her cheeks to stop herself from smiling when she saw it – Viridian winced when one of the punches had hit particularly hard.

Dawn knew that fighting type moves weren't as effective against poison types, but there was a reason why she wanted Frejya to use it in battle whenever she could. The thing about rock smash was, it punched in a way designed to break through rocks. When used on a Pokémon, it weakened their defense by breaking through it like it broke through rocks. Because of this sometimes, when the move was used, it lowered the defense of the Pokémon hit. The damage done to the Pokémon would probably be lower, thanks to the type disadvantage, but if the defense was lowered and more effective, physical moves were used . . . .

She returned Frejya, who had done her part, and sent out Neptune.

Gardenia eyed the water type, weighed out some options in her head, and then ordered Viridian to use stun spore. The Roserade shuffled on her feet, gauging her foe's reaction rate, and then feinted a few times before actually coming close and having her red and blue roses release the paralyzing pollen.

Neptune was ready. He opened his beak and shot a thick, continuous stream of bubble beam until the drifting stun spores were all too damp to reach his lungs. Likewise, the Roserade's bouquets were too wet to properly release stun spores. During extra flour training, Neptune had grown tired of getting flour in his beak and settled to making everything wet with a strong water sport.

Getting the idea from his use of water to disable powder moves, the two of them had experimented to see just which move was best suited for stopping spores from reaching Neptune. Bubble, water sport and bubble beam had almost identical results, but bubble beam caused the greatest amount of damage on top of stopping the spores, and served as a good distraction to hold off the foe while they set something up on their side.

The bubbles from the bubble beam exploded in Viridian's face when met with the irritants of the dampened spores. Feeling pushed, Viridian began to reach for the sitrus berry she held in cases of battle emergencies like this when Neptune dove through the veil of bubbles and began pecking.

No, not pecking – plucking. The Roserade had her berry plucked away from her, and had to watch her foe eat it right in front of her.

Dawn had gone over the footage of the battle to see the mistakes she had made, and noticed what the foe Pokémon had done during the challenge. One of the things, like she had suspected, was that the Roserade had snuck a berry to her mouth to recover from the damage. She guessed – hoped – that it wouldn't be something as specific as a figi berry that could potentially cause confusion and had taught Neptune the move pluck through a TM she had.

Neptune used that move gleefully. Not only was it super effective on the grass type, but it also let him steal and eat the berry in front of his foe. He could have very well been using taunt on the Roserade for the effect it had on her.

Snarling in outrage, Viridian pointed her bouquets in front of her like two deadly projectiles about to be fired, ready to release the magical leaves that wouldn't be hindered by a bit of water like her spores.

Before she could, Dawn switched Neptune for Minerva. At the same time, the mystical veil that had been protecting the Roserade flickered away into nothing.

Safeguard had worn out.

Gardenia changed tactics, recognizing the loss of protection. "Poison sting!"

Minerva shrieked when the stingers peppered her face, but she was still able to hypnotize Viridian after a few attempts. From then on, it was almost too easy, finishing up the battle.

* * *

"Much better," Gardenia told her as she handed Dawn her own Forest Badge, along with a TM for grass knot. "You had a strategy to go along with strength and conditioning this time around. It was rigid, and relied on free switching a bit too much for my liking, but it was a good one for the guidelines you had."

Rigid? Dawn had thought that she had adopted to the situation pretty well. She must have pouted a bit, because Gardenia smiled slightly. "Take criticism like medicine," she said. "It's good for you – after all, no one's perfect. Why not allow others to spot what you may have missed?"

It was more of a matter of pride for her. Despite her attempts to murder her ego, it was hard to do given her competition. Barry, after all, hadn't lost to Gardenia or Roark. He had just won in his first try. With his speed, he was probably already at the third city for a badge.

The gym leader sighed. "Do you know why most times, a trained Pokémon will be superior to a wild one?"

Taken back slightly at the question, Dawn shrugged. "Better fed?" she asked, citing the reason she'd grown up hearing.

"Perhaps that could have something to do with it," Gardenia allowed. "But the key difference is the intelligence. Strength can only get you so far – look at history! Eterna was a center of information and knowledge, a place for the intelligent clerics to gather and share thoughts back in Sinnoh's older days. There was a reason why Eterna's past residents survived, and it was because they were smart. They couldn't outfight their opponents, but they could certainly out_think_ their opponents in battle and war.

"Training is the same. A trainer doesn't just help a Pokémon get stronger in brute physical strength. There's more to the profession than that, no matter what people tend to say and think. Every factor around you can be a blessing or a curse in battle, depending on whether you know how to use it or not. Extensive planning, foresight, coordination and self-knowledge – _those_ are the qualities of a trainer. _Not_," Gardenia gave her a cool look. "Sheer force."

Dawn nodded, but winced internally. Thinking on her feet – that was something she had to learn and experience more. It was one thing to hear it from Uncle Palmer and another thing to experience it firsthand, but –

Her heart nearly stopped. Both Uncle Palmer and Barry were speedy people by nature. Being a fast thinker, being overwhelming in presence alone . . . there was a reason why Uncle Palmer was so good at what he did. Was that why Barry was doing so well in earning badges quickly?

Despite her attempts to not push through on strength alone, so far she'd relied on sheer force, just like Gardenia had said. Did that make her a bad trainer?

Gardenia's face softened. "It's alright, you know," she said. "Your first battle with me – sure, you relied too much on your Pokémon's sheer strengths – but the one we just had now? I would have put it somewhere along the third, maybe fourth-badge level. And remember, you not only knocked all of my Pokémon out, but had all of yours still standing in the end. That's still something. You've got potential, Dawn. You're going to go far, so don't worry and just work hard."

Dawn put everything away. "Thank you," she said quietly. It might have been something a gym leader said to protect her public image, or just a nice-hearted person saying nice things to not hurt feelings, but it still reminded her that she had a long way to go and moping wasn't going to do anything.

Gardenia was right. She had to bend her pride and take criticism like desperately-needed medicine. She had to learn.

"You're welcome," Gardenia smiled at her.

* * *

Strategy.

Dawn remembered going to tournaments with Barry to cheer on Uncle Palmer. The light shows from colliding attacks had been impressive, but beyond the fancy lights there had been a fast and furious dance going on, a battle where two strong minds grappled with each other, trying to win dominance over each other through their Pokémon. A trainer had called out the words dictating a certain step or move and the Pokémon had made it a reality, executing manoeuvres and attacks perfectly.

It involved extensive planning, and more advanced training than the simple 'hit-the-target-as-fast-as-you-can' and 'run-run-run-run-run-_dodge'_ tactics she'd been using. It was something she'd have to work at to use effectively, with all her Pokémon.

She needed more experience. She needed to better connect with her Pokémon – understand them more. She needed practice.

Both Routes 211 and 205 had been trained on extensively by her Pokémon. Dawn wanted somewhere with a bit of an unfamiliar setting, and found their temporary training ground in a small field just off Route 205.

Sekhmet was working on a charge-spark combination when Minerva hooted angrily. Dawn turned and saw to where her Noctowl was gesturing at. A short distance away from the field they were in stood the odd building with spikes on its sides. The residents of the city claimed that it belonged to Team Galactic, and the grunts hadn't said anything to the contrary. Because this wasn't like the case at the Windworks she couldn't quite go gallivanting in, and the police hadn't been willing to do anything.

But Minerva was pointing at the side door, where two grunts were dragging in what looked like an unconscious guy.

"Hey, team?" she asked quietly. "Change of plans."

* * *

The police took down her words and politely thanked her. When she saw that the officers were in more of a hurry to reach the donuts an attractive female cop brought in at that moment than to go down knocking at Galactic doors, she decided to take matters into her own hands and marched into the building herself.

Perhaps Gardenia had been onto something with strategy and thinking things through in a short span of time under some pressure, because the moment she walked in the building her arm was grabbed by a grunt. Neptune, at her side, swiped with a deadly metal claw that was dodged hastily.

And luckily, too, because the grunt turned out to be Looker in disguise.

"I already told the police about this like you told me to do," she said before he could get a word in edgewise after revealing his identity.

"I don't care," he said, beginning to shrug his disguise back on. "Leave – this is dangerous."

But there was stubbornness in Dawn, and she _knew_ she could make a bigger difference than the donut-obsessed cops of Eterna who were too scared to act in fear of a lawsuit. The stubbornness in her demanded that she not abandon someplace where she could make a difference, no matter what someone told her. "No," she said, tilting her chin up in obstinacy.

He could have removed her by force, but to do so would have been to cause a ruckus – therefore giving himself away. He saw this as well. "This isn't a game," he tried to warn her.

She shrugged – she knew that – and tried to go by him anyways.

He sighed and cleared his throat. "Be wary of the stairs – there are more of them than needed. It seems that the building's design was made complicated on purpose in order to trap intruders and infiltrators."

Dawn stopped. He wasn't approving of this by any means, but he was giving her advice. "So I shouldn't just go recklessly up any pair of stairs."

"Precisely. But do not worry – these crooks are not smart. There will be an easy way to distinguish between the two. That I am sure of."

He replaced his disguise – she marvelled at the flawlessness – went ahead, looked around a bit before waving her in to signal the all-clear.

She went ahead, and didn't look back. Despite Looker giving her the clear, she knew he didn't approve. She wouldn't have approved herself – this was a really bad idea, and she knew it.

But Dawn felt like she had to do it. She had to stand up against those who would stomp on the rights of others. If someone didn't stand up to bullies, the bullies won. And in front of her, bullies would not win.

"I know this is really stupid," she told Neptune after bringing him out, "but let's actually go and disable whatever traps they have set up for us."

Her starter sent her a flat look. "C'mon, we could totally do it," she coaxed. "And think about it – there's probably more of them upstairs, and if we don't wipe out the ones down then we end up getting ourselves surrounded. We're working on strategy, see?"

Seeing her point about covering their backs, Neptune agreed, if only to make sure she didn't get herself into something dangerous. They headed up the fake stairs.

The traps on the fake set of stairs turned out to be nothing but a few grunts who were easily taken down by a few surprise attacks. "You wouldn't have been able to take us down if everyone was here," one of them snarled at her.

Frejya punched the floor next to his feet with her ear. He quietened down when he saw the floor crack and dent.

The Galactic building, for some reason, was filled with duct tape. Rolls after rolls of the silvery stuff. Under threats of metal claw and rock smash, the grunts she beat stayed still long enough for her to tape them into immobility and then shut them up.

On the fourth floor, she saw the formerly unconscious guy, huddling with a Clefairy and a Buneary. Behind them, a heavily made-up woman stood in a strange jumpsuit, arms crossed across her chest. She had purple hair, long but styled back into an oddly shaped ponytail. Her jumpsuit was missing its left leg, but the black and white fabric covered every other part of her body along with her boots.

She scowled in Dawn's direction, but didn't say anything. She only kept glaring at her.

"Is it a habit for Team Galactic to kidnap people and Pokémon?" Dawn asked, breaking the silence first as she jabbed a finger at the man.

The woman gave her a look of surprise before she burst out laughing, making Dawn flush a bit. She felt very much like a child, despite the fact that this woman's opinion of her shouldn't have mattered. "Did you come to free the Pokémon?" she asked in a falsely sweet voice before dropping it. "Of course you did. Well, little girl, guess what?"

"What?" Dawn asked, guessing and expecting the answer.

The purple-haired woman sneered. "It's not going to happen. Here – take a bite out of _this_ instead."

A Zubat, screeching, dove out of nowhere and towards her. Despite being blind, the Pokémon's screech allowed it to 'see' by hearing rather than sight, and it would have severely hurt her if it made it towards her.

It was a good thing Neptune was out. He shot a bubble beam directly at the incoming assailant before it could get her. The bubbles exploded upon contact, sending the bat veering from its original trajectory angle and flying back away from her neck and face area. "Thanks," Dawn gasped, surprised by the attempted assault.

"Hmph," the purple-haired woman sniffed. She reminded Dawn of Commander Mars from the Valley Windworks, despite their differences in appearances. Perhaps she was a commander of Team Galactic as well. "Giga drain."

"Bubble beam!"

The Zubat, glowing green, shot a bulb at the Prinplup. When the bulb hit, it latched onto Neptune's skin for a while as it sapped at his energy before breaking off into glowing green orbs that flew back to the Zubat. Neptune winced when the super-effective move hit, but he still hit the Zubat squarely in the face with focused bubbles that actually glowed with blue light. The impact of the bubbles hitting and popping the poison type threw it until it hit the ceiling. It chattered weakly as it fell.

"Useless," the maybe-commander muttered and recalled it. "Skuntank!"

Dawn quickly switched Neptune out, telling him to stand next to her while the woman was occupied. That last bubble beam had been powered up by torrent, Neptune's ability. While a power-up was much appreciated, it meant that his health was in critical condition. Far too much for her to be comfortable with, because she knew just how ruthless a commander's Pokémon could be.

And so did Sekhmet, who was sent out snarling a challenge. "Charge up and go!" Sekhmet, still fresher than the others, would be able to power up and then power through. Dawn needed Sekhmet to hit hard, and the boost on her special defense wouldn't hurt, either.

Jupiter's eyes were like flints. "Night slash."

The charging made Sekhmet's body glow with the electricity she was storing in her fur, making the poison type miss all her vitals. She hissed slightly, but it wasn't anything that would hurt her too much.

"Poison gas."

The Skuntank released a purple gaseous cloud that surrounded the Luxio. Sekhmet hissed in pain at the stinging gas cloud washing over her, but she still charged at the Skuntank. "Cover yourself with smokescreen!" the woman growled. "Kid, what do you think you're doing here?"

Dawn wanted to ignore her, but at the same time she wanted to answer. The question was what she could say in response to the question asked to her. Claim that she was just 'dropping by'? Give some self-righteous speech?

"I don't like what you people do," she settled for that instead. It was ridiculously childish – and seeing as how she had only just passed childhood, even more so – but it was the truth. Dawn didn't like how the grunts had threatened Lucas and Professor Rowan. She didn't like how they kept a little girl from her only parent and home. She didn't like how they disturbed such a peaceful, friendly place like Floaroma. She didn't like how they invaded an awesome city like Eterna and set a gloomy mood everywhere.

The woman laughed harshly. "Little heroine, aren't we?" Her laugh turned into a snarl when Frejya and Minerva, who had hidden themselves at the stairs, let out triumphant battle cries. Their sounds were mixed with human cries of surprise and pain.

"Trying for a sneak attack from the back?" Dawn asked with pursed lips as Sekhmet lunged. Mars hadn't done that.

"Just being thorough," she laughed, echoing Dawn's earlier thoughts as the Skuntank parried, though the electric blows gave it grief. "After all, we wouldn't want to have everything go wrong just when we're so close, would we?"

"Close to what?" Sekhmet hissed once more in pain from the poison, but batted off the dark and poison type. Her charged state gave her some more protection, and while that may have been negated by the poison, the additional boost to her spark was certainly paying off. Skuntank looked far worse than Sekhmet, and it wasn't even paralyzed yet.

"Research," the woman was far more composed when her Pokémon fell this time. She called it back and gave her a long, measured look. "I'm sure you know that Eterna happens to be a gold mine of information."

"History," Dawn felt the need to extend a bit.

"History. Myths, really, but you're right. They all have their roots in history. That was my job, to collect and organize them – and I'm done," the purple-haired woman nodded at her. "Just before you came, trainer, this man told me everything that I still needed to know."

Dawn looked at the man, still cringing and conscious. "What's your name?" she asked, sounding a lot calmer than she felt.

"I am Commander Jupiter of Team Galactic."

Dawn made a mental note of this as Jupiter began to turn away. "Oh, and trainer?" she added before fully turning. "You may think you're some sort of hero now, because you're strong, but just keep in mind. Team Galactic's going to gain strength. Power like you could never imagine. Our boss will harness the powers of the legends."

"And take over the world?" Dawn guessed, half-sarcastic. The other half took all of their crazy appearances and words into account and decided that it wasn't a half-bad deduction to make.

Jupiter gave her a smile that chilled her bones. "Perhaps," she said before an acrid smoke filled the entire room. The black smokescreen hid Jupiter's figure, and it was clouding towards her.

If they lost their sight while scattered around, they'd be easy pickings. "Group around me, all of you!" Dawn yelled as her eyes began to water. She pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth and pulled the Pokémon to hide their faces and breathe as low as they could, noses close to the ground. She shuffled to the wall where she had seen a window and struggled to open it while staying low.

By the time the window had been opened and the air was cleared, Jupiter was gone.

* * *

Looker had a choice to make when a young trainer decided to break into the Galactic Headquarters. He tried to talk some sense into the reckless girl – just because she had managed to take down some members of Team Galactic the last time she ran in with them didn't mean that she would always end up winning – but the girl refused to leave.

He shouldn't have showed her his face, but the other option was to simply shove her in holding somewhere, which had been unacceptable. He should have dragged her out of the building, kicking and screaming, but to do so would have brought down the attention of all the grunts, if not the Commander in the building herself. He would have been exposed, and all the work done to get him into Team Galactic would have been wasted. Team Galactic would be more cautious, and Interpol wouldn't be able to do enough to gather data and stop whatever they were up to in time.

Whatever Team Galactic was up to, Looker's gut feeling told him that it wasn't going to be good. From the way he heard the Commanders speak, derisively of humanity and the way the world was, he was guessing that the higher ups were radicals, or nihilist. Lower tier members, or grunts of the organization, were only told that by being a part of Team Galactic, they would automatically become part of a better world, which meant that, to some degree somewhere, Team Galactic was after control and power.

People had to be hurt for a group like Team Galactic to seize control and power, possibly killed. It wasn't realistic for a group like this to seize control and power, but they were certainly capable of taking a shot at the effort, and a shot was more than enough to cause plenty of damage.

They were also large enough, and certainly strong and rich enough to be a considerable threat. No plans had been made and announced as of yet, but if plans were to be made and carried out . . . .

One girl, weighed against the benefit of potentially hundreds saved.

Looker made a choice and prayed that the girl would be lucky once more.

The building was relatively quiet. Only a small squad of grunts had been sent to the Eterna base, in case of emergencies, and Commander Jupiter abhorred unnecessary chatter. Looker worked on the job given to him – filing papers and figuring out sums – until the alarm to evacuate was raised. He grabbed the files and followed the other grunts to the evacuation spots, where Pokémon capable of teleporting were waiting instructions.

"What's going on?" he asked aloud.

"Some kid broke in," another grunt in line answered, picking at duck tape on her clothes. "Rumour is, she beat Commander Jupiter in battle."

He made the obligatory sounds of interest and disbelief, but he mentally thanked the heavens. The gods had answered his prayers.

* * *

The man who had been kidnapped turned out to be the owner of the famous bike shop, Rad Rickshaw, who was also a local celebrity for being a history buff. After filling out police statements, he bought her a crepe at a stand and gave her one of the latest models in his shop. "_Least_ I could do," he said when she protested out of courtesy. She didn't really put much heart behind her protests because heck, this was awesome. "You saved me and Rodney from them Galactic punks. Way I see it, _I_ owe _you_."

Rodney the Clefairy nodded in agreement. Dawn didn't argue further.

The police officers had initially laughed when she had claimed to be the one to take down a Team Galactic Commander, but at the testimony of Rad had lost their humour quickly. They didn't seem to know at all about the Interpol agent, so Dawn assumed that Looker was trying to not draw attention to himself.

She asked after him, since he'd disappeared again, but when no one knew gave up and then stocked up on supplies before picking up her Pokémon from the center. "I'm proud of you," she told them. "And . . . thank you."

They smiled at her.

Lyra, on the other hand, was not so proud of her. When Dawn let it slip that she had rescued a man from a Galactic Commander and gotten a free bike in exchange, the Johtoan girl had chewed her out for being so reckless and demanded a video chat. There, face to face, a livid Lyra had demanded to know just why Dawn had thrown herself into a dangerous situation all by herself.

"You did that too, remember?" Dawn asked, trying to stay calm and not get caught up in the argument. She didn't want to fight with Lyra. Hopefully reminding the other girl about the time she had stumbled onto a Team Rocket operation led by an admin would make her rethink her – in Dawn's opinion – rather hypocritical anger.

_"I had friends with me!"_ Lyra sputtered. "_And_ _practically the whole town of Azalea!"_

"I had my Pokémon," Dawn protested. "Besides, their commanders kind of suck. I battled one already before and-"

"What?!"

For someone who had acted against the criminal organization in their region, Lyra seemed quite paranoid about her doing the same in Sinnoh. After promising to never recklessly go after Team Galactic and commanders – even with friends backing her up – they went back to their usual talk about their Pokémon and what was going on around them. This time, they discussed strategies much more in-depth than they ever had, critiquing styles and choices before making suggestions to remedy problems. She was forgiven.

A few days of rest in Eterna later, it was time to get on the road again if they wanted to cover as much ground as possible before winter came. Hypothermia and cold-related accidents were one of the highest causes of trainer injuries and death in the Sinnoh region, and Dawn wanted to be snugly buried in her home when winter came. They had to get moving again to make as much progress before the famous Sinnoh winters came down upon them.

Looking at the map, they all decided that their next destination should be Hearthome. There were two ways from Eterna to Hearthome. One was through Route 211 and Mt. Coronet, heading around Celestic and Solaceon. The other was to bike down the cycling road built above Route 206's regional park, heading back to Oreburgh and crossing a different section of Mt. Coronet to head to Hearthome.

"We totally got the bike for a reason," she said with a grin. "This was destiny!"

Dawn began to believe her destiny explanation more when she ran into one of the professor's aides – one Michael Yew, aka Lucas's father – at the entrance to the cycling road. "It's very nice to meet you at last," he said, shaking her hand warmly. "The professor speaks very highly of you."

"Thank you," she ducked her head a bit.

"This is quite the coincidence," he said. "The professor actually wanted me to pass this along to you."

Mr. Yew presented her with what looked like a headgear made out of a mass of wires and metals. "Umm . . . ."

He laughed at her expression. "It's an experience share. When a Pokémon wears it, it can gain experience from battles by proxy."

She looked at it again, this time with more enthusiasm. "Cool!"

"The professor wanted you to have it, since you're an excellent trainer. He hopes that you'll continue your hard work on the Pokédex."

Dawn shrugged. "I just battle and encounter Pokémon. I'm not very good at catching Pokémon – but Lucas is!" she grinned. "I bet you're really proud of your son!"

He smiled at her, but she noticed that his expression was a bit more wooden than before. "I am . . . proud of Lucas," he agreed. "Well then, Dawn, it's been very nice meeting you. I wish you good luck on your journey."

She waved, and then stuck her new exp share into her bag's digital storage before getting on her bike.

The cool thing about Route 206's cycling road was that it was an observatory of a sort, built high above a long stretch of land named Grotte National Park. The road was built with tall fences hard to climb in order to prevent people from littering or attempting suicide, and was sturdy enough to host multiple battles on top of it at once.

Most of the bikers preferred quick Pokémon, like Ponyta, Staravia and Pikachu. Quick, they were for sure, but they didn't stand a chance against Neptune, who swept them all easily with his bubble beam. Once the other trainers on bikes saw how strong they were, they began to challenge her. It took much longer than the average estimated time for them to reach Oreburgh, by which time night was falling. Luckily, the Pokémon Center had a few empty rooms.

"Calling it a night," she grunted. No one objected, and she fell asleep as soon as she had showered and pulled on her pajamas.

Coincidentally, she was in the room she had been in when she had first come into the city to challenge Roark. Only Neptune realized this, but even he was too tired to care enough to point it out.

* * *

AN: Question - which novelization in this universe would people most be interested in reading? Emerald/ORAS, Leaf Green, or Heart Gold? I'd prefer to get at least one of these out of the way before starting on the later ones like Black, Black 2 and Y.


	11. Out on the Mira

A.S.107

August 4th

_Contests aren't my thing. _

* * *

At the advice of his master, Lucas went to explore Wayward Cave, a part of Grotte Park after picking up his newly revived Pokémon from the fossil lab in Oreburgh. He planned on camping in the area for at least three days, so he packed his bag with enough supplies to last him and his Pokémon for five days. This wasn't his first time camping outside for a few days, but it was his first time doing it by himself without his dad or other aides of the professor accompanying him.

Well, he had his Pokémon with him, so it wasn't exactly _alone_, he supposed. It was his first time planning out a camping trip by himself.

Brandon, his Bibarel, pushed a few boulders out of the way so that the paths through the twisting dark caves were a bit clearer. "How do these things even get here?" he wondered out loud. One would think, with people coming and going through the cave, that the rocks wouldn't be placed in such awkward places.

Arthur shrugged. The Kadabra was busy lighting up the pitch black of Wayward Cave with flash so that Lucas could actually enjoy looking around the cave without crashing into places.

The light drove away some Pokémon, but it also attracted the attention of others. They weren't Pokémon he hadn't seen before, but he made sure to keep track of just what species were indigenous to Wayward Cave. He was personally hoping to see a Gible, since he'd heard that the rare ground and dragon types lived in deeper parts of Wayward Cave, hoarding their treasures and digging tunnels so they could travel through the ground.

When he turned the next corner, he found himself looking down a tunnel where light was coming from the end. It didn't look like an opening – rather, it looked like someone else was using flash from the other side. "Hello?" he called down.

"Hello," he received in reply. Curious, Lucas and his Pokémon moved ahead to see just who else was in Wayward Cave.

His fellow cave-camper was a girl around his age with pink hair. Like him, she had a Kadabra using flash to light up her surroundings.

"Hi," the girl said to him cheerfully. "I'm Mira!"

"Lucas," he said in return, shaking the offered hand. "Are you camping out here?"

"Yup!" she gestured to her sleeping bag and portable stove. "This place has the coolest sights and Pokémon around Sinnoh! I come out here all the time and it never gets boring."

"Really?" Lucas said, interest peaked. "Then do you know where the Gible live?"

While the trainers talked, the two Kadabra began communicating on their own. "Isn't that sweet?" muttered the girl's Kadabra, sounding like he thought the exact opposite.

"Depends on what you define sweet as," Arthur replied.

The other Kadabra paused before introducing himself. "Name's Otto," he said.

"Arthur," he replied.

Lucas ended up camping with the girl, who introduced herself as Mira Rowan. Once he learned her name, he remembered that Professor Rowan had a younger brother, who in turn had a family of his own. When he inquired about it, she admitted that Professor Rowan was her great-uncle. Like Dawn and Barry, she was a competitive trainer. She claimed to not specialize in types but in stats – specifically special attacks.

"Otto was my starter," she said, patting her Kadabra's arm fondly. The psychic type paused in his teaching the other Kadabra some mind tricks to smile down at his trainer before returning to his self-imposed role of mentor to the younger one. "We're training so we can get to be a stat trainer at the Battle Tower."

"I hope you make it," Lucas said. To be a trainer at the Battle Tower – a hired, full-time battler, not just a member of the Frontier that liked to use the Tower's services a lot – was quite the big deal. The battlers, mostly specializing in a specific stat such as speed or defense, had to have plenty of experience and a good track record in competitive battling. Not only that, but they had to prove that they were also active in other aspects of life, and show their worth in battle against the Battle Tower Tycoon himself, Palmer Keizer.

It was a very ambitious goal. But then again, he wanted to be regional professor of Sinnoh one day, despite the fact that the title of regional professor almost always went to the prestigious families that had held the position of regional professor and other high titles for generations. In Kanto, it was Oak, in Unova, it was Juniper. In Sinnoh, it was Rowan. If he looked at it the right way, Mira was more likely to accomplish her goal than he was.

To get his mind off depressing matters, he talked about other things to her, and she responded enthusiastically until both of them were yawning and more than willing to go to bed to get some shuteye. Despite the good materials his sleeping bag was made out of, he could still feel the hard ground beneath him and already foresee the back problems this would cause him. He'd probably ache all day tomorrow.

Still, he was having a lot of fun. The next morning they were sharing breakfast and stories, becoming fast friends.

* * *

After a hearty breakfast, Dawn took her Pokémon and headed out to the park she had cycled over the previous day. There weren't exactly any new Pokémon in the park, much to her disappointment, but a few trainers had been willing to battle – as long it was done very, very carefully in order to not destroy or harm the environment around them. While Neptune and Sekhmet were as eager as usual, she noticed Minerva drawing back, being more and more reluctant to battle. Often, she let Frejya or the others volunteer to take her turn.

Not every Pokémon liked to keep battling competitively. Many tired of battling constantly, and to push them to continue would make them miserable. She'd have to find an alternative for Minerva. The Noctowl didn't seem interested in being released, but at the same time it wasn't fair for her to be kept in the box forever.

Dawn made note of that and pushed it to the back of her mind. She could deal with that later and have a talk with her in private – right now, she had a few battles to finish and a park to look through briefly.

An hour or so after noon, a few hours into her exploring the park, she was in the middle of battling a hiker when he yelped and turned away from the battle, excited. His Geodude, distracted by his trainer's distracted state, was hit directly in the face by a bubble beam and promptly knocked out. "We win!" Dawn declared.

"Yeah, yeah!" the hiker threw money at her. "C'mon, George – George? Damn," he cursed when he realized that his only Pokémon was unconscious.

"What's wrong?"

He did a little dance of impatient excitement, hopping back and forth between his feet. "Look!" he pointed to a patch of grass.

At first she didn't see it, but then something metallic glinted under the ray of sunshine and Dawn gawked. "Is that a-"

"A prehistoric Pokémon!" the hiker, who was beginning to remind her more of a ruin maniac, threw his head back and howled. "I discovered a surviving branch of a supposedly-extinct species!"

Dawn frowned when she remembered that they were near Oreburgh, where the Sinnohan Fossil Resurrection Lab was. "Er," she began, not really wanting to rain on someone's parade but feeling like she had to pop his bubble.

"Sherlock!"

The tan creature with the black disc of polished metal for its head turned towards the sound. Dawn turned to see Lucas with a pink-haired girl next to him. Dawn thought she recognized the girl from a tournament video somewhere, but she couldn't remember her name. She decided to stick with greeting Lucas and waved. He returned it with a grin. Cupid, from his perch on Lucas's shoulder, cheerfully waved as well. It looked like they were getting along well.

"Hey, I was worried about you," the boy told the Pokémon when he and his group came closer. The Shieldon more or less ignored him and settled for staring vacantly at the sky.

The hiker, learning that he had only run upon a Pokémon revived from a fossil with the new technology, went away dejected. "So Sherlock's the fossil you found from the underground, huh?" she asked, leaning down to pet him. Steel-type. She liked him very much already.

"Yeah," Lucas stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and smiled, looking a lot more like a boy around his age. More than he usually did, anyways. "The Underground's literally a treasure trove. You should go there sometime. I think you'd like it – you can find treasures, or build a secret base and set traps around."

Dawn considered it. "Sounds pretty fun. Do I have to pay or anything?"

"That depends," and Lucas went on a huge, lengthy speech about the Underground Man and how trainers could benefit from spending more time experiencing mining and exploring the tunnels below Sinnoh. The pink-haired girl interrupted once, thanking Lucas for helping her out of the cave before leaving. Lucas called her 'Mira', and that was when Dawn finally remembered the name of the prodigy trainer who had been ranking high in recent tournaments. Stupid of her to forget, since she was related to Professor Rowan, but still. It looked like Lucas knew a lot of Rowans.

"I'll check it out one day," Dawn promised Lucas when the topic finally was put to rest. Since noon had already past, they both agreed to head back to Oreburgh for a late lunch. "By the way, I met your dad in Eterna the other day."

Lucas looked surprised, but not in the good, happy way she would have been if her dad had been alive and someone had told her they had seen him around. "My dad?"

"Yeah," she eyed him warily. That wasn't how she had expected him to react to her news. "He gave me an exp share from Professor Rowan and told me to keep up . . . to work hard."

"Oh."

So Lucas hadn't known that his father had been in Eterna. Now Dawn felt bad. "He also said that he's proud of you."

"Oh."

It didn't seem to help. Maybe Lucas knew that it had been a slight stretch of the truth on her part. Now she felt really bad. Awkward silence sat between them until they were in the diner, buying burgers, fries and shakes. Mostly planning from her experience with Barry, Dawn threw a fry at Lucas, hitting him squarely on his nose. He stared at her like she was crazy.

"Ten points for me," she said like she made complete sense. It didn't to her, but he didn't need to know that.

He didn't start throwing food back at her, but he did smile and relax, making the sacrifice of the fry worth it. They gave up eating their fries entirely when the revived Sherlock was found to love fried potato strips. "Hey," he said when their meal was over.

She finished the last of her desert, a chocolate cake. On a journey by herself, she should have watched her diet a little more, but a little indulgence was okay every now and then. "Yeah?" she said after swallowing.

Lucas held out his hands above the table towards her, both clenched into light fists. "Choose a hand."

"Umm," Dawn considered the choices presented. "Right?"

"Good choice."

He gave her a triangular device. "That's the Vs. Seeker," he said. "It keeps track of your battles and uploads your records onto your account so that people looking at your trainer profile can properly access your skills and battle experience."

There was some debate as to just what counted as official battle wins. In status quo, the official records of trainers were from battles that had official referees, like gym challenges or tournaments. There was talk to counting challenges made 'on the road', where trainers challenged other trainers passing by into a battle, and the trainer profile did keep track of those as well when data was available.

It didn't look like the system would change its rules any time soon – most of the 'street battle' records were still reliant on a person's claims, and therefore not as accurate or trustworthy. Vs. Seekers were devices made to keep track of a person's street battles so that the records uploaded to one's trainer profile had some validity behind them. When the Vs. Seeker was the one making the updates, there was a mark next to the records to prove that the statistics added were legitimate, and therefore a more accurate reflection of the trainer's skills.

Dawn didn't upload any of her street battle wins onto her profile because of the reason that it wasn't as trustworthy or easy to validate, but with the Vs. Seeker it was an entirely different story. "Thanks," she said, taking the device. She would have to synchronize it to her profile later, but it would help. Despite their lack of validation in most parts, the numbers of victories in street battles still made a resume of her career as a trainer, and with the Vs. Seeker she'd have no problems at all.

Lucas, though, wasn't done giving apparently. He unfurled the fingers of his left hand. "And here."

The other gift was a dowsing machine app for her watch. "To get you into finding treasures," he said as an explanation before she could start talking him into taking it back. One random, out-of-the-blues gift was nice, two seemed a little over the board. "That way, you'll go to the Underground because you'll be addicted to finding treasures."

"What about you?"

"I already have one," he showed her his watch. "Take them; I got them free to promote them."

Dawn would have argued, but realized that he wasn't going to let her return the gifts. She accepted them with thanks, and after some thought gave him a handful of great balls. "Least I can do," she said.

He took them, and then got up from his seat. "Anyways, see you?"

She waved and he left, heading back to Eterna to finish up his short apprenticeship with the Underground Man.

* * *

Lucas was right, dowsing was really fun, and a bit addicting. She wasted a lot of time the day he gave her trying it out and found quite a lot of items that way because it brought out the bargain seeker inside of her. It was amazing what things went missed.

The next day, with her watch set firmly to dowsing mode, they packed up and headed to Mt. Coronet's tunnel. It was supposed to be a straight path, and impossible to get lost in.

Just in case, Dawn stocked up on escape ropes.

Halfway in, standing next to a sign with information about Mt. Coronet, she realized that it really _was_ impossible to get lost in the cavern. Dark, it certainly was, and rather foreboding in a heavy, dramatic way, but she could see the light from the other end in the far distance, as well as some lanterns placed in order to light the way to the other side. The path leading to said light on the other end was also pretty distinct and clear, easy for her to go through. "Looks like I was worried for nothing," she told Neptune, who was out of his ball to keep her safe from wild Pokémon like Geodude or Zubat.

He nodded in agreement before he spun around abruptly after hearing a noise, the tips of his flippers lit up in a metal claw.

The foe he was aiming them at – the blue-haired guy from Eterna and Lake Verity – only raised an eyebrow.

Dawn squashed the urge to point at him and yell 'you'. Instead, she only tugged at Neptune. She was definitely grateful for his protectiveness, but the last thing she wanted was for him to be 'put down' for being violent. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just that you scared us."

He nodded at her before craning his head slightly to read the sign. "Ah," he sighed.

She glanced at it. Myths surrounding the mountain – the very basic, most politically correct version of them to avoid offending anyone. "Are you interested in myths?"

"You could say that," he looked at her like she was something that had just been brought to his interest. Not someone. Some_thing_. "Some say that Mt. Coronet was where the Sinnoh region began."

"I know that theory," she said, remembering stories told to her years ago. "It's the one where Dialga and Palkia were supposed to have made the world from Spear Pillar, and they created the mountain to stand upon as they used their powers."

It was the most popular one, for sure – at least in Sinnoh. Religious cults in other regions weren't as powerful, large or politically involved as the major ones in Sinnoh, but they did butt heads over their beliefs occasionally.

"Indeed," he agreed.

"Must have been quite the view," she said, examining a painting of the world being 'created' by Dialga's roar and Palkia's slashes. "The world, being created right there and then."

"In a newly created world . . . A world where only time flowed and space expanded . . . There should have been no strife. But what became of the world?"

Dawn looked back at him, but he had an almost dreamy expression on his face. It wasn't a question she was supposed to answer. "Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete," he continued, dreamy face hardening slowly, "strife has spread . . . This world is being ruined by it . . . I find this state of affairs deplorable . . ."

"Uhh," she didn't know what to say to that. He sounded like one of the cynics or radical fanatics that liked to come to Lake Verity to rant to Mespirit about the ugliness they saw in the world. They were always monitored carefully and dealt with accordingly if they were found dangerous, but they were never particularly pleasant to be around. All the talk about there being no hope for improvement always made her feel heavy in the pits of her stomach.

He looked down at her. She kind of froze, then, feeling a bit trapped by his blank eyes. Eyes that looked like they'd seen everything in this world and could do anything without even showing a glimpse of what was going on inside.

It was uncomfortable, and creepy. She felt like she was being judged for her worthiness, and while the opinions of others didn't impact her very much, this one felt almost threatening.

"Dawn? Is that you?"

Both of them turned around to see someone in the distance. Even in the relatively dark cave, the pale blond hair and bright orange clothes were visible. Barry waved, and then began running towards her.

She wanted to throw her arms around him and hug him as tightly as she could because seriously, bless him and his ability to just break any tense situation. Dawn hadn't been sure whether she was supposed to have heard his rather disturbing talk or not, but the man looked like he could kill witnesses without losing any sleep over the matter. "Even you couldn't have gotten lost here," he said, exasperated when he stopped next to them. "Are you bothering more people?"

"_No_!" she protested indignantly. She was probably overreacting, but figured that acting casual and unafraid like a child would give her a better chance of being ignored by the man.

It worked. The blue-haired man nodded at her, apparently losing interest, and slipped away. When he was out of the cavern, Dawn let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Barry asked, perceptive for once.

She told him. "Okay, that's kind of creepy," he admitted. "But I'm sure he's just one of those emo people."

"Emo people wear black," Dawn thought for a bit. "Don't they?"

Barry shrugged, not really caring enough to keep his short attention span on it. "Anyways, what took you so long?" he tapped her head impatiently. "Did you get your second badge?"

Dawn grinned and showed off her latest conquest. "Ha ha!" Barry clapped his hands. "That's what I'm talking about! That's my rival!"

"What about you?" Dawn asked. "How many badges do you have?"

"Two," Barry said, "but it'll be three soon. I'm challenging Fantina in Hearthome soon, and I'm going to win."

"Chh-ck!"

Both of them looked up to see a larger-than-average Zubat flitting by. The blind poison type paused around them, hovering and circling, and let out a few more sounds.

Dawn thought for three seconds before she let Minerva out. The Noctowl glanced around the environment she was in – a cave – but her eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly. "Just weaken the Zubat," Dawn said as the Noctowl took into the air, making the necessary turns to not allow the Zubat to lead her to circle around too much in confusion. "Don't faint it."

Obligingly, Minerva held back her attacks, making sure it wasn't too much so as to knock out the foe. The Zubat squealed in pain, but didn't flee. Dawn's guess – that the Zubat was interested in getting a trainer – had been right.

When the Zubat looked worn enough, she dug out a Poké ball from her bag's digital item storage section and threw it. The ball absorbed the Zubat after disintegrating it, and fell to the ground. Once it let out a ding of confirmation, Dawn went to pick it up.

She turned to Minerva. "Thank you," she said softly, and the Noctowl hooted just as softly before Dawn returned her. Then, Dawn checked the status of the Pokémon on the filled Poké ball before she released the newly-caught Zubat, who skittered nervously. "Hi," she said a bit more cheerfully than she would have.

The Zubat lunged towards the sound of her voice. Dawn flinched and Barry yelped, but the Zubat only tangled it – _her_self up in Dawn's hair. "Chit-chit-chit," she said.

Dawn sighed in relief. For a moment she thought that she had misinterpreted the Zubat's wishes. "Your name's Themis," she told the Zubat, and didn't get a sound of disapproval. "I'm Dawn, and I'm going to be your trainer from today. Are you alright with that?"

The Zubat snuggled into her hair. "Okay," she said, and reached up to carefully disentangle the poison type. "No nesting in my hair. You could choke or end up hurting me as well, and neither of us wants that, yes?"

Themis left her hair, and jumped off of Dawn's hand so she could hover in the air again. "Shhck," she said. Dawn got the feeling that the Zubat didn't actually have a thing for nesting in long hair – she had just done that to startle Dawn with the sudden rush.

"Ha," she said dryly. "Well, return for now. You'll meet the rest of the team later on."

After she returned her latest catch, she looked to Barry, who had an odd look on his face. "What?" she asked defensively.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just . . . why catch one now? You've seen them before, haven't you? You could have caught one way before. And you already have Minerva as your flying type. Isn't two a little much?"

"Well, you know, this is Mt. Coronet," she said with her arms extended towards the gray stone of the cavern's ceilings. "Where myths and legends were born! Themis will be one too one day, you'll see."

Barry looked at her a little skeptically. "So . . . she's a souvenir?"

Dawn dropped her arms to whack him in his shoulder. "No."

Because her reasons for catching Themis wasn't as noble. If Minerva was going to quit battling, she needed a different flying type on her team. Noctowl were nice birds, lots of stamina and a few psychic powers lying dormant within them – despite not being psychic in type – but she didn't want to catch another one if Minerva was going to quit. It almost felt like she was replacing Minerva but in a wrong sense – because the spot left behind the bird would have to be replaced, just not necessarily by another Noctowl. If she caught another Noctowl, she'd constantly compare the two, and that wasn't fair to either of them.

Themis had dropped by at the perfect time. The Zubat family, especially Zubat, were amazingly common in a large number of regions, so many trainers overlooked their usefulness. They were associated with criminals, gangs and generally cheap labour because it was easy to find and catch them.

But people often forgot that the ninjas of Fuchsia – one of the former Kanto Empire's deadliest forces – had been the first in history to use the Zubat family. The ninja clan had used Zubat and its evolutions for everything from blitz attacks to assassinations. Even now, the leader of the ninjas in Fuchsia and the poison type Elite Four of the Indigo League, Koga Fuchsia, had a Crobat as his signature Pokémon.

The Zubat family were known to be fast and agile, growing even more so as they evolved. They weren't as easily tricked because of their superior sense of hearing – natural blindness being a part of life often led to excellent honing of other senses – and they were great at throwing statuses onto opponents before dancing out of danger's range.

Themis wasn't Minerva. She would replace the role of the flier, _replace_ Minerva, but by doing so would let Minerva be free to do what she wanted to do, which was obviously not battling.

. . . And maybe she was a souvenir of Mt. Coronet as well. Dawn would never tell, though.

They stepped out into the brightly lit Route 208. "I should book a room in the center first," she told Barry. "It's crowded there, right?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!"

For old time's sakes, they agreed to race there. She returned all of her Pokémon and began to run in the general direction. Her plan was to let Barry lead by just a bit and then overtake him when the destination was clear. For all of his hyper activity, Barry still had a better sense of direction than she did.

Laughing, they turned a corner and darted down the stairs, getting yelled at by a hiker for being careless. They got across the grass without incident as they were apparently too fast for any Pokémon to attack, though they had to stop at the gate between the route and the city for a check-in. They started to run again once they were finished. Barry had turned to laugh at her 'slowness' when his eyes widened in horror and he tripped.

It was all too quick, and most of her memories were from retrospect. She ended up tripping over him and falling on something soft and squishy.

Soft and squishy and very much alive, judging from the frantic squirming going on under her stomach.

When Dawn got up, she thought that Frejya had managed to escape her ball, but it soon became clear to her that the Buneary in front of her didn't belong to her. It was someone else's. "Oops."

"Yeah," Barry groaned. Dawn had accidently clipped his head with her boots when she had gone flying.

The owner came running shortly after. "Thank Cresselia," she sighed as she scooped the dazed Buneary up in her arms. She was a pretty woman, with curled brown hair and carefully applied makeup. Despite her civilian outfit, she was clearly someone used to dressing up in style.

She was actually familiar to Dawn. Her name was Kiera, and she had come over to Twinleaf to visit Johanna a few times when Dawn had been eight. She was also a pretty big name in the coordinating world, although not as big as her mom's.

Apparently she didn't recognize Dawn, because she simply kept talking without showing recognition. "I don't know what would have happened if you two hadn't been here."

Dawn shot Barry a look to make sure he didn't say anything about the collision. He got the message and didn't run his tongue carelessly.

"Return, Lola," she sighed and recalled her Buneary. "Thank you two so much," she said once her arms were empty. "I'm Kiera. I have to go back, but if you'll drop by the Contest Hall around, say, three o'clock, I'd be more than happy to properly reward you!"

Apparently in a hurry, Kiera left quickly.

When Barry heard the word 'contest' he decided to not go. "Not really interested."

But Dawn was. Somewhat. And it couldn't hurt to get some compensation, right?

After managing to book a room and dropping off her general luggage at one of the Pokémon Centers in Hearthome City – the Center nearest to Route 208, as it was – the two of them grabbed a few snacks and effectively goofed away some of their time before heading towards the hall. Hearthome City was one of the largest cities in the Sinnoh region, but it wasn't loud or overly crowded in the way Jubilife's streets could be. The sections of the city where merchants with services and goods related to Pokémon Contests were familiar to her, as she'd tagged along with her mother for contests in the area a good number of times over the years. Even she could find her way to the hall with relative ease.

Once they were in front of the hall, Barry decided to leave. "See ya later," he waved, and dashed away from the hall.

It looked like a contest had just finished up. There were cleaners sweeping up confetti, coordinators packing up their props and accessories, the last of the spectators emptying out of the viewing area through the double doors.

Dawn saw Kiera right away. The brown-haired woman stood near the reception area, talking to two other women.

Dawn did a double take on one of the other woman. "Mom!"

Johanna looked up from her conversation to be hit by a tackle-hug by her daughter. If Dawn hadn't been so short, her mother would have been bowled off her feet.

Kiera gasped. "Dawn? I can't believe I didn't recognize you! Oh Cresselia, you've grown so _much_!"

By grown, Dawn assumed she meant 'matured' and not 'taller', because she really wasn't that tall. Still, she let Kiera sweep her into a hug.

"This is a coincidence," Kiera said after letting Dawn go. "Are you in Hearthome for contests? Is that why you're here, Johanna?"

Johanna and Dawn exchanged a look. Her mom's friends always wondered why Dawn wouldn't follow her mother's footsteps into the world of Pokémon coordinating. "We haven't spoken much about contests," Johanna said, giving their usual bland but safe and true answer. Johanna never imposed onto Dawn what she should do with her future. She did impose a _few_ rules, like not being a mass-murderer or a circus performer or a map maker, but other than that she respected Dawn's choices.

"I've tried some when I was little," Dawn added as Kiera tried to talk her into doing contests. A lot of her mom's friends, former students and acquaintances in the contest world thought that Dawn's problem was her being shy and insecure about living up to the standards set by her mother's image. They always tried to reassure her that she was her own person, that she would be wonderful on her own, that she would absolutely love coordinating.

Dawn appreciated their efforts, really – they were all nice people trying to help a young person out – but really. She just preferred training. Even as a rookie trainer not even finished her first year of training she liked battling more than coordinating. There was something in battling that was liberating, clenching and powerful all at the same time that contests with their appeals and dancing and glittering lights just didn't give her. "The rookie ones, with rental Pokémon. But, you know, I prefer training."

She'd forgotten just how stubborn her mom's former protégée had been, and just how passionate she was about coordinating. "Well, we can't have that now, can we?" Kiera tossed her hair back. "But oh, wait, I'm forgetting about you," she added to the third woman with a sheepish grin.

The third woman was dressed simply, in sweats and a training jacket, with her purple hair pulled back into a messy bun held by a plain plastic clip. She didn't wear makeup, or jewelry or anything particularly eye-catching.

But looks and outer appearances could be deceiving. Her mom looked like any other moms normally, but when she was all dressed up, she looked years younger than she was, and easily caught everyone's eye. "This is Fantina, top coordinator and Gym Leader of Hearthome," Kiera said.

Fantina, nearly unrecognizable from her usual flashy public pictures, smiled. "Johanna's daughter?" she said, with a hint of a Kalosian accent. "But you prefer training. Interesting. Are you in the city to try for my badge?"

Dawn ducked her head, reverting to the polite autopilot she defaulted to around her mom's friends or guests. "Yes ma'am," she said respectfully.

Kiera interrupted. "But before you go for that badge, you've got to enter a Super Contest in Hearthome – you're _Johanna _Steele's _daughter_! Which Pokémon do you want to enter?"

Dawn found herself dragged to the registration desk and handing over her trainer card and signing up for a contest and watching Kiera rapidly jot down all the necessary information on a register form. "I guess . . . Neptune?" she guessed. Frejya was still a bit cold, Minerva wasn't much for theatrics, Sekhmet would probably try to bite her and Themis had just been caught. Neptune was the only one she could rely on for this challenge in life.

Kiera handed over the reward when she remembered – glitter powder accessory – and ran off, claiming she had an appointment with a beauty stylist. Fantina's phone rang, and after talking briefly with whoever was on the line, the gym leader excused herself. She did, however, promise to stay in the city until Dawn came for her badge, which took a burden off of Dawn's shoulders. The ghost type specialist was notorious for not being in her gym. With that promise holding the gym leader in town, Dawn could get more time to practice and train than she'd initially anticipated getting.

It was just Dawn and her mother now. Dawn sighed, a little tired from the sudden celebrity rush after the two had left.

Then, the full implications of just what had happened sank in.

"Help," she moaned to her mother, who smiled at her daughter's chagrin.

* * *

There were three days before the next Normal Rank Contests. Kiera had signed her up for a Cool Contest.

Her mom said that it was plenty of time to practice, and for the purposes of saving cost and room, helped move Dawn's things from the room at the center to the hotel she was staying at so that other trainers would be able to get lodging. Barry wished her luck, but told her that he'd be busy at the gym challenging Fantina during the contest. Dawn cursed the coinciding times.

"Will three days be enough?" she said dubiously. "And where would we practice?"

"Of course it's enough," Johanna replied matter-of-factly. "I hate to sound snobby, but it _is_ only a Normal Rank Contest, meant for beginners. And actually, the Hearthome Hall holds practice sessions for all three categories of the contest."

After seeing Neptune shoot bubble beams and flash his metal claw, her mom agreed that what they needed to work on was the visual and dance presentations.

Dawn dressed him up in the accessories her mom had. Over the years, as a famous coordinator, her mother had collected and received many different accessories for contests, enough to fill one or two _dressing_ rooms. She had one of her kits on her, and now she let Dawn borrow it.

Neptune, dressed in fluff and feathers, grumbled.

Johanna tipped her head to the side to examine her daughter's starter in a new light and angle. How did one say something nicely, but give good constructive criticism?

She couldn't think of one. All she could be, in the position of a teacher, was to be bluntly honest. Her daughter would understand. If she didn't, then she had obviously raised her wrong. "Neptune's lacking sheen," she said frankly. "If he doesn't get any, he won't win."

Dawn gave her a long look, partially wondering if she should have paid more attention to her mom's coordinating during her childhood years. "But we can fix that?"

Johanna inclined her head. "After the dance practice."

The dance rehearsal was a little better. Since sheen wasn't relied on so much in this category, they could focus on Neptune's techniques. "He's pretty light on his feet," Johanna commented when he pulled off a move perfectly after the choreographer had demonstrated it once.

"Yeah Neptune!" Dawn cheered and was glared at for being loud. Said glares disappeared when people saw just who she was next to, and Dawn wasn't sure whether to be glad or sad about it.

When the music was switched off, they dropped by a local farmer's market near the suburban part of the city to purchase berries before rushing to a poffin store. Hearthome, being both a largely populated city and the host to the most important contests held in Sinnoh, had an abundance of poffin bakeries around. Johanna, however, was very specific with the poffins she fed her Pokémon. What the berries used was, how fresh the batter happened to be, who cooked it and so on.

Her favourite was a store that provided the best batter she had seen. Customers were given batter and expected to cook their own poffins. They were also to bring their own berries, the one drawback to what could have been the perfect store. Johanna had often consoled herself over the length of her career using the store's services, telling herself that it guaranteed the freshness of the berries in her poffin even if it meant that she had to make the effort of bringing her own berries.

Now she was bringing her daughter here, explaining her reasons for choosing the place. They bought a poffin case and paid for the hour. "We get unlimited batter," she explained, filling the pot. Once the batter had reached the line marked within the pot, she placed an oran berry within. "Watch."

Cooking a poffin was an art in its own. It required precise control in the beginning and a watchful eye for the subtle timings that could be missed. A single second could make or break the quality of the poffin.

Dawn let out an impressed ooh when Johanna flipped the finished poffin onto a cooling rack. "Let's try it," her mom said, breaking open the doughy bread with a fork. Steam rose from the coloured insides. "The reason why I like this shop is because the batter's edible by humans as well as Pokémon."

Dawn popped a piece of it into her mouth. "It's actually really good," she said. Bready, but moist enough to not choke on the texture, with a soft, warm oran flavour throughout. "It reminds me of your muffins."

"Where do you think the recipe comes from?" Johanna teased. Dawn choked on the bit of bread laughing.

By the end of the hour, Johanna had demonstrated seven more poffins and Dawn had made fifteen of good quality. They were both a bit stuffed on the 'failures', so opted to skip out on dinner.

Neptune, under envious gazes, polished off six poffins on his own before generously handing out some to the others.

"Tomorrow," her mom told her as they walked back to the hotel. "We work on your appeals again."

* * *

The next two days were spent under intense preparations of a kind neither Dawn nor Neptune were used to. Now that Neptune had a good sheen – Dawn finally saw the difference once it was her own Pokémon that had gone through the change – their greatest challenge was the dance competition. Neptune had nailed those moves, but the choreographed part was only one-fourth of the total points from the dance section. The other three-fourth required being able to be a good back-up dancer to the other three Pokémon participating as well. It required on-the-spot thinking and good reflexes.

"Will Jackie be teaching us?" Dawn asked. Jackie was one of her mom's most famous Pokémon because of her dancing skills. She switched from style to style in different contests, and danced so fluidly that Dawn could count on the fingers of one hand when another Pokémon had gotten higher scores than Jackie in the dance section of a contest she entered in.

"No – Jackie's at home working on her liquid dancing. She kicked me out of the house so she could practice in secret. I think she wants to surprise me," Johanna added dryly. Jackie was a bit of a diva sometimes, and almost always when it involved choreographing her moves. "But Neptune will be fine," her mom said just as he completed the routine perfectly for the third time in a row. The Prinplup, too tired to brag at the praise, drank the water Dawn brought him. "You know you won't be dancing _with_ him during the actual contest, right Dawn?"

Dawn was also tired. Neptune had initially been reluctant to perform on his own. Her promising to practice with him, no matter how 'embarrassing' it was, had been the only reason why he was going through with this as well as he was right now. So far it was more tiring than embarrassing, because other people practicing had thought it was a good idea and joined in as well. "I know," she said.

Johanna eyed her daughter. "Take a shower," she told her. "We need to go shopping for your outfit."

Her thigh muscles protested, even after the hot water, but Dawn found herself following her mother into boutiques and trying on dresses. "It doesn't make much sense for your Pokémon to be all dressed up, but for you to remain plain-clothed," her mom explained as she handed a pink dress over the door to her. "It's to get into the spirit of the contest."

Dawn gave the frilly dress a baleful look as she stepped out of the change room. She loved shopping as much as the average person, but she was bone-tired and not in the mood for dresses.

"No," mother and daughter both agreed, and Dawn went back in to try on another dress, settling for a just-as-pink-but-certainly-less-frilly version of the first one.

"So you've gotten two badges," her mom began to list as she pulled off the second dress after deciding it didn't match her skin tone. "What else?"

"Not much," she said as she smoothed the skirt. "Oh, this one's too tight."

"Let me see," her mom ordered. Dawn stepped out of the change room and let her mother run a critical eye over the dress. "You're right. But this is the smallest thing they have, and we don't have time to tailor a larger one . . . ."

"I'll live without it," she shrugged, slipping back into the stall to change out. "I also got a free bike."

"A _free_ bike?"

Dawn realized her mistake when her mom's voice rose slightly in suspicion. "It's okay," she said in an attempt to placate her. "I didn't steal or sign something important."

Her mom didn't let it go, despite Dawn's hopes. "Instead you did . . . ?"

"Relax, mom, I saved the owner from a bunch of gangsters."

That didn't calm her mom at all. "Gangsters? Dawn, please tell me that you didn't interrupt a gang war or something."

"I didn't," Dawn struggled out of her dress and left it hanging on the wall's hook so she could get her own clothes back on.

The answer didn't stop her mom's worries. "Why didn't you go to the police?"

Why couldn't this changing room have a bench or something she could sit on? She was awkwardly balanced on her shoes. Not in her shoes, because she couldn't get her feet into the boots properly while trying to maintain her balance and get some clothes on at the same time, but on them, because she had to put clothes on and that meant that she couldn't put her boots back on until she did. "I did! They just didn't listen to me, so I had to go infiltrate the building myself!"

"_Infiltrate_ the _building_?"

She really should have shut up. She really should have learned from a past experience with Lyra, but because of her tiredness she had let her mouth run loose without even thinking about the consequences. She realized that now, but it was too late. When she stepped out of the change room, finally having decided on a dress, her mother's lips were pressed tightly together in worry. "Spill," she ordered.

Dawn did, making sure to emphasize the parts that were safer and rather humorous. "The professor said it was alright," she said, using the professor's egging them onto the Galactic grunts as a justification.

"Dawn," her mother groaned. "These people – Team Galactic – they sound just like one of those organized crime syndicates in other regions!"

"They're just space geeks," Dawn protested. "Trust me, mom, they're stupid!"

"At least promise me you'll stay away from them?"

Her mom looked worried. Extremely.

Dawn was grateful that she was only asking for a promise to stay away from Team Galactic, and not putting her under major house arrest or something. "I promise I'll try, but if they come after me I can't guarantee their safety."

Some of the worry and tension around her mother's eyes disappeared. "Of course," the older woman sniffed. "In fact, I'd disown you if you did."

She laughed at her mom's odd sense of humour, but the issue of safety got her thinking.

* * *

"Our theme for today's contest is . . . ."

Dawn opened her case. Behind stage, everyone looked jittery and nervous, just like she felt. She tried to pick up the jar of glitter powder and very nearly dropped it again. Neptune sighed at her clumsiness, but even he looked like he was trying to calm himself down.

Barry was probably battling at the gym right now, against Fantina and her ghost type Pokémon. She hoped he was doing great, like he usually did.

The MC took the card out of the envelope with a flourish. "The Natural!"

She put the bottle of glitter powder down and reached for the flower she had bought in Floaroma. "Thank the Lakes you have some yellow on you," she said as she fastened the yellow tulip around his neck. "It doesn't clash."

He sniffed at the fluff that was placed around the tip of his flippers, and turned so she could better place the feathers on his head. "You look natural," she said as she attached the accessories. Her mouth felt dry and her heart wouldn't stop beating. She hadn't been this nervous for a long time now. Her fingers shook, and she fumbled a few times with the feathers. Oh dear.

As if sensing her near-hysteria, Neptune made a serious face and struck a thinker's pose. She laughed, a bit surprised at his joking manner.

"That's time!"

She took a step back and looked at Neptune as critically as she could, subjectivity and bias shoved out of her head. Neptune stood tall with his back and shoulders straight. The yellow tulip was at his neck like a crest or a bolo tie – she wasn't sure which one – and the feathers behind his head were arranged to look like a crown. Simple, but enhancing his naturally regal looks and drawing the audience's attention to his strong shoulders, his haughty face. The prince of birds.

He tugged at her hand and pointed to the large, wall-sized mirror next to them. He stood, hiding his nervousness and looking ready to take on the world. She had makeup on, applied by her mother to be subtle and not popping. Her mom had leant her a set of pearl earrings, and her lobes dangled when she walked, next to the curls of hair on the side of her head. Her dress was blue and white, to match Neptune. She looked older, more mature than she usually did, even with her short height.

All dolled up like this, they didn't even look like their normal selves. She hadn't wanted to do this. She hadn't even asked Neptune's opinion before signing him up to this.

But he had done so well, never complaining or hating her. And now, she wanted to do this – not for Kiera, not for herself, not even for her mom, but for Neptune. Her Pokémon deserved that, and more. He deserved one hundred and ten percent of her efforts here, and while it would mostly be him doing the work, she would be there, grateful and supportive.

"Let's do this," she said. The two of them went into place, a stall hidden to the audience by a curtain. When the corresponding number was called, the curtain would rise and the Pokémon inside was to step out and show off to the audience.

They were number four, and as each contestant before them was revealed her palms grew sweatier.

Finally, the Glameow in front of them was revealed to the audience, and received polite applause. "Ready?" she whispered from her place behind the stage.

"Number four, Dawn and Neptune!"

She had been worried about nothing. The curtain rose and Neptune walked out with a swagger displaying every bit of the pride his species was said to possess. When he reached the end of the catwalk he was supposed to walk down, he gave a haughty and almost sassy look before swaggering right back down like he owned not just the catwalk and the hall, but also the whole world.

The audience loved the look, as well as his sheen and how his appearance fit the theme. There were quite a number of camera flashes that went off, and Dawn suspected that the media had caught wind of the rumour that Johanna Steele's daughter was giving contests a whirl. She decided to not think about it for now. This was about Neptune, about him getting what he deserved.

Dancing went equally well. Neptune kept on beat, and pulled through even when some of the others nearly ran into him as the music changed and dictated that they switched positions. The Beginner's rank really was the beginner's rank, it seemed, because Neptune was shining like no one else.

During their turn in the appeals, Neptune accidently put too much power behind his bubble beam when he was performing. Luckily, it missed and he only hit the ground in front of the judging panel, where they piled up and maintained their form thanks to the water sport used beforehand. With some improvisation thrown in, they used metal claw to make the bubbles burst in precise, neat orders. The metallic energy on the end of Neptune's claws let the bubbles pop with an extra sparkle, adding to the visual presentation. Thinking it had all been part of plan, the judges awarded them high points.

Then the contest was ending. Dawn held one of Neptune's flippers while watching the big screen load. If she lost, then it would most likely reflect upon badly on her mother. She would probably be known as the idiot who couldn't win even when a legendary coordinator spoon fed her all the tricks of a contest. Even as a trainer she'd probably carry the stigma. Maybe she'd be made into a meme.

The nerves flushed out of her cleanly when the results popped up on the large screen. Dawn squealed at the points displayed while Neptune crowed. "We won!"

"By a landslide," Johanna nodded. "I knew you'd win."

She and Neptune ran up onto the stage, where the male judge and MC – Mac – pinned the ribbon onto Neptune, who swaggered proudly as expected at the award. "We hope to see you all again!" he called, ending the ceremony.

After, Dawn was asked to be interviewed by a few reporters. Two were local, but one was from Jubilife News, seeking something for celebrity news. Nothing too important. She gave a few brief statements on what she felt – good, especially because she had won – on whether she planned on participating again – maybe, it was unsure, she wanted to train for now – and some other simpler questions before she cut it off and left.

Then, they went to an ice cream parlour to celebrate the victory with huge sundaes. Barry dropped by with a huge grin on his face, proudly displaying the Relic Badge as proof of his victory at the gym.

The real star of the night was busy, retelling his exploits to the other Pokémon, but Dawn managed to squeeze herself into his busy time to give him a hug. "Thank you," she whispered to him in their hug, and he hugged her back. He wasn't particularly a fan of hugs, and they both knew that, but right now it was alright.

* * *

"Are you really fine with this?"

Frejya asked the question as she sat at the edge of the hotel room's left bed that Dawn had claimed as her own, kicking with her short feet. If she ever evolved, her legs would become long and slender, her fists would be used for punching and her ears would be used to defend herself. Right now, though, she was a Buneary and that was not the case.

Minerva shrugged her brown wings. "I think so," she said, referring to the plan she had made with Dawn the day before. "I mean – I don't really like battling, I think. The gym back in that city near the forest was okay, but can I keep doing it? I don't think so."

Frejya stopped kicking and lay down on her back, the coolness of the sheets hitting her furry back. "So what are you going to do?"

The Noctowl rolled her eyes in thought. "I don't know. Fly, I guess. I like flying."

"Hmm."

The bell around her neck jingled softly. Frejya closed her eyes and fell asleep, staying so until Dawn stepped back into the room, having returned from her shower. Then, despite her trainer's attempts to wiggle under the covers without waking her, she woke. Frejya let her get into bed for the effort.

* * *

Dawn hadn't been tired of training or anything, but the focus on contests rather than battles had been a nice break. Now, they could focus all their energy into strategizing with renewed vigour.

Or something like that.

Her mom was going back to Twinleaf now that she was done. She had rented the services of a flier's Honchkrow, and they would take her to Jubilife where Aunt Maggie would be waiting for her.

"Keep up your letters, okay?" Johanna patted her daughter's back and smoothed her hair. "And be careful."

"I will," Dawn promised. "But mom, take this."

She pressed a Poké ball into her mother's palm. "It's Minerva's Poké ball."

Her mom gave her a puzzled look. "That way," Dawn explained, "You don't have to be protected by only your Pokémon."

It wasn't that Dawn doubted her mom's Pokémon. Jackie, Julia and Juni loved her mom, and had been with her for a long time. Her mom had around nine more Pokémon at either the main Steele estate, or in PC boxes for convenience that she could access when needed. Jackie may have been the only one from her original party at home right now, but Juni and Julia were both descendents of her first ones, and they were still as close and as loyal as their mothers and grandmothers had been. They were close friends who probably would have died to keep Johanna safe.

But they weren't Pokémon used to fighting battles. Trained well, yes, but they were Pokémon used to performing on stage. Dawn just wanted to cover everything and make sure she missed nothing. She didn't want things left up to chance.

Swallowing a lump that had formed at the thought of her mom dying as well, Dawn continued on. "Minerva's strong, mom, and she's really smart. She's also got awesome night vision, so if anything happens during the night she'll see it like it was in broad daylight. She can fly, so her opponents are going to have a harder time-"

"Wait, wait," Johanna raised a hand, trying to stop her daughter's verbal diarrhea. "Dawn, why are you giving me your Noctowl?"

"Technically, I'm _entrusting_ her to you," Dawn corrected. "After thinking about what you said about Team Galactic, I got worried about your safety. I asked my team if any of them wanted to volunteer to watch over you . . . and Minerva stepped forwards."

"Sweetie, I can't-"

"Yes you can," Dawn interrupted. "And you will. Unless you want me to go around actively tracking down Team Galactic."

She wondered if she had gone too far. Because she was a minor, her mother could still pull the guardianship card and make her return home if she felt that her daughter was too reckless for her own good.

Her mom recognized the not-really-a-threat as the concerned words they really were. "Alright," she said, taking Minerva's sphere.

* * *

Since Fantina had promised to stay in her gym until she came to challenge her, Dawn went to Route 208 to train for the upcoming battle. The agreement was that her mom would trade Minerva over for Frejya every two days over the PC system and she'd give the bird one or two hours of training before sending her back, but the rest of her time was devoted to training the others, especially Themis, her latest Pokémon.

Training her turned out to be a lot easier thanks to the experience sharing device given to her by Lucas's dad. With it somehow strapped onto her head, Themis apparently experienced battle as if she was seeing things through the fighting Pokémon's eyes. Soon she was strong enough to take down everything mostly by herself. Once she was strong enough, Themis went on a literally blind rampage taking down everything getting in her path and it was all Dawn could do to keep her from actually attacking humans.

"You can't do that," Dawn lectured after Themis accidentally ended up grazing the back of Dawn's head with her fangs. "If you attack humans, and they decide to press charges, you could be killed!"

That stopped her from aiming for human trainers – which she apparently 'saw' as the root of the threat – but it didn't stop her from going all but postal on the Pokémon she faced. Luckily they weren't fighting trainers, but trying battle styles against each other when they discovered this. Frejya bore the cackling astonish attacks without batting an eyelid, and when Themis began biting pounded back.

Still, Themis couldn't seem to resist. Because she could fly, she had the advantage of going out of the Buneary's reach when she needed to retreat. Dawn swapped her out for Neptune in hopes that a bubble beam to the face might make her rethink her actions.

It didn't.

In fact, Neptune lost his temper and began to shoot his bubbles erratically, making it easier for the Zubat to detect and avoid the attacks. The more she did that – taunting the Prinplup – the more he lost his control, and the easier it got for Themis to swoop down and either astonish or bite him through the cover of his own bubbles.

Sekhmet watched, amused, but even she grew bored of the violent display soon. When Themis went too far in biting Neptune over and over again, she knocked the Zubat out of the air with a swipe of her paw and made a threatening display of crackling electricity to scare her into good behaviour. The Zubat may not have seen the electricity, but she could certainly hear the crackles and smell the sulfur produced by the sparks, and recognized that she should back down before she got electrocuted.

After that, Dawn explained a few things to Themis. "You can't just attack blindly, alright?" she told the poison type, Sekhmet watching from her side. "If you attack other trained Pokémon too violently – or humans at all – you could be deemed dangerous and put down. That means killed."

Sekhmet at her side huffed. "Graao," the Luxio said, adding in her own two cents. Whatever she said, that got Themis to nod seriously. After that 'talk', she kept herself in control.

* * *

Clefairy were interesting creatures. Urban legends claimed that they came from the moon, and that their ghosts became Gengars, all the benevolent kindness turned to mischief and in some cases, maliciousness. They danced for the full moon in circles, weaving patterns and chanting something in a language only they could really understand.

They were also rare, but a few colonies of them lived in Mt. Coronet. The professor wanted to know if a wild Clefairy that had lived in the strange radioactive fields of Mt. Coronet would have developed an evolution different from Clefable. So far there hadn't been any definite proof of such an evolution, but there were paintings left from the past of creatures similar to but not quite the same as Clefairy or Clefable. It could have just been artistic licensing or a lack of knowledge on just what the rare fairies would have looked like, but it was still worth investigating.

Over the video chat, Professor Rowan had asked him to catch one if he ever saw one in Mt. Coronet. There were other people who were in Coronet seeking out Clefairy for the same cause, but the more data he had to work with, the better it would be. Lucas had promised that he would do so when he heard his father in the background, the chat not having been ended just yet.

_"Oh, Lucas wouldn't be able to catch such a rare Pokémon,"_ he said in the distance, a slight laugh in his crackling voice. _"Perhaps you should have Dawn, or that other boy have a go at it instead, professor?"_

Lucas hung up politely. Then he went deep into the caverns of Mt. Coronet, armed with healing items, Poké balls, escape ropes and other supplies. They ran into a lot of common cave-dwelling Pokémon like Zubat and Geodude, but didn't catch a hint of the elusive pink.

Hours passed, and after looking through the most likely places on the first level – the part of Mt. Coronet that was developed to allow for casual trainers to pass by without too much trouble – they decided to look into Pearl Cavern, a large underground cavern named after the ever-present mist lying thick within.

In Pearl Cavern he'd have to be careful and be vigilant – the mist was very thick, letting him see nothing past a meter and half out from where he stood, and there was a large underground lake on the side of the cavern open for public travelling. If he wasn't careful, he could easily fall in and drown. Every now and then, Arthur used his psychic powers to push away the water particles that made the thick blanket of fog, clearing the air for a radius of five meters or so. It always came back eventually, and Arthur didn't have enough control or power to continuously do it, but he managed to clear the air quickly enough that any Pokémon hiding would be taken off-guard.

Now the psychic signalled with his hand that he was about to clear the air once more. Charlotte, the nimble one, got ready to make her rounds while Brandon stood behind Lucas, covering areas he wouldn't be able to see. Arthur remained concentrated on the task at hand, which was to clear the fog in areas where he felt life. He didn't know how to feel the differences in life forms unless he knew them personally – otherwise, he classified them as either human or Pokémon.

Arthur spun his spoon idly and then his eyes glowed. There was a feeling in Lucas's guts like a pillow being hit across his abdomen and going through his entire torso, but without pain. The fog around them glowed once in the same shade of blue as the light in Arthur's eyes before the area around them stood, clear and exposed.

"Anything?" he asked Charlotte, who was already scampering across the rocky walls of the cave. She shrieked in the negative.

Behind him, Brandon let out a chatter as he pointed a furry brown paw at a pink figure trying to hide behind one of the cave's boulders. "Good job," he told the Bibarel. "Arthur! Charlotte! Northeast!"

Charlotte did a double back flip through the air and landed neatly on her feet before she ran after the direction of the Clefairy. Arthur trapped the Clefairy by teleporting to the other side. The fog would come in close once more, so they had to catch the Clefairy before it did.

"Arthur, don't touch the Clefairy," he warned, running after them. He wasn't sure of its ability or its gender, but if it was a female with cute charm, then his Pokémon could be infatuated with contact. "You too, Charlotte!"

The Clefairy assessed the situation with shifting eyes, and then reached out with a hand to touch Arthur. Female.

"Charlotte!"

The fire monkey gave a light punch to the Clefairy's exposed back. It screeched and turned to face her, but turned once more with a definitely frustrated face when Arthur hit her with a weak psybeam.

Lucas, now close, threw a great ball. After absorbing the Clefairy, it shook once . . . .

Twice . . . .

Thrice . . . .

And then it let out the sound of a click.

Lucas exhaled. "Good job, everybody," he told them all as the fog began closing in once more. It didn't matter. "And thank you."

He named the Clefairy 'Miranda'. Professor Rowan was very impressed, and even his father gave him a small compliment for the feat.

Lucas stood a little straighter after that. He kept Miranda instead of releasing her, and the Clefairy, despite the 'reluctance' she'd shown during the process of capturing, didn't mind being a trained Pokémon very much.

* * *

AN: Like I said, this is based off of gameplay. Pokémon will be benched (or boxed, I guess is the right term).

If you were paying attention, you'll remember that I gave Johanna a Medicham at the beginning of the game. For those of you wondering why (because the Glameow made sense thanks to the anime, and the Kanghaskan made sense thanks to the game) a Medicham, well, it's because of the dance portion of the contest, as well as a backstory I have for Johanna. Also, I wanted to give Johanna more Pokémon.

Mira: Mira is related to Professor Rowan because it fit, I guess? I found it weird, also, that such a strong trainer later on in the game would have had difficulty with Wayward Cave, especially because her Kadabra (who, here, is named after Bismarck) knows Flash. I made her more mature for that reason. Because here Dawn has issues with getting lost, and Lucas is the one that digs underground, he's the one that met Mira.

We've had a pretty even spread of opinion on the next story's setting (so I'm back at square one). The summaries for the novelizations are on my profile - did you guys read those before voting? For Emerald and LG, there's going to be a pretty big plot twist, and HG will have twists of its own. Just warning you guys.

If I ask you to review, will you?


	12. The Alluring Souls Unseen

A.S.107

August 18th

_Today, I challenged the Hearthome Gym Leader for her badge._

* * *

"What's wrong with you?"

Frejya looked up from the grass she was kicking to see the second-in-command, Sekhmet, looking at her. On another Pokémon the look on Sekhmet's face might have been called a sharp look at the very least, but on Sekhmet it was just her usual way of looking at others. Everything about her was fierce.

Natural – she was a predator. It was only natural that Frejya felt sort of intimidated by the Luxio. She normally didn't show it, though. She had her own dignity to uphold, and she had stood up to a few Luxio before in Eterna Forest. She could do so then, she could do so now, especially since she knew that her life wasn't at threat here.

"Nothing, I guess," she said, maintaining eye contact but keeping her voice quiet. That was true – there was nothing _wrong_ with her. She was perfectly healthy. It was just that she was thinking.

"Well," the second-in-command of the team said after a pause. "Get your head in the game. Don't get snatched up by some predator while you're all spaced out."

Frejya nodded. They both turned to keep an eye on Dawn, who was a few meters away lobbing balls at Themis to dodge. Next to her, Neptune was letting bubbles drift out of his beak lazily. The Zubat, despite being blind, was dodging both balls and bubbles with ease, tracking the projectiles with sound before ducking or dropping to avoid being hit. Her aerial work wasn't bad, either – much better than Minerva's had been before she'd been further trained.

"Um, excuse me? Miss? Other miss?"

Frejya and Sekhmet turned around, and saw two whitish creatures with green and red heads. They vaguely resembled human children in shape, but they were both clearly Pokémon. One clung to the other, hiding behind it shyly.

The one who'd spoken opened its – his – mouth again. "Does that human girl happen to be your trainer?" he asked politely.

Frejya nodded.

The Pokémon hiding behind the first speaker opened her own mouth. "She's so warm . . . ." this one, a female, said softly before blushing and ducking her head behind the male.

"Do you," the male began, before changing his sentence. "That is to say, would you mind if we were to approach your trainer and seek to join her?"

Sekhmet looked at them. "You want to be a trained Pokémon?"

Frejya thought that the two of them – whatever Pokémon they happened to be – had come at a bad time to ask members of the team. Out of all four members of the current party, she and Sekhmet were not the most welcoming of them all, what with Sekhmet's habit of glowering at everything and everyone and Frejya not being particularly welcoming to anyone as a general policy. Even Themis would have been a better choice.

But the two Pokémon didn't falter at the lukewarm, unenthusiastic reception. "If it wouldn't bother you," the male said, nodding politely.

Sekhmet shrugged. "Follow me," she said, getting to her feet and stretching before heading towards Dawn.

The male began to walk after Sekhmet, but the female's hesitance held him back. "It's okay," he said to the female. "We were looking for a good-hearted human, remember? And she's one of the nicest we've seen!"

The female still hesitated, and then looked to Frejya. The Buneary blinked in surprise. She knew that look. It was the look Budew gave to Roselia. It was the look Wurmple gave to Beautifly. It was the look she used to give to her older sister Lopunny before she died. Heck, even some Gastly, nasty things they were, used to look to the Gengar that lived in the abandoned house like that.

It was a look seeking approval and confirmation. Why the female green and white creature looked to _her_, of all Pokémon, instead of her brother Frejya had no idea.

She hesitated, but gave a small, brief nod. The two green and white creatures talked like psychics – aloof but polite and talking about warmth when they hadn't even touched Dawn. Lopunny used to say that psychics could feel lives through their minds without ever touching them. Psychics had good intuition, and if they thought they'd be good with Dawn, well, who was she to say otherwise?

Looking relieved, the female followed the male who followed Sekhmet towards their trainer.

Frejya followed the procession and watched from a distance as Dawn was met with the two green and white creatures. She got the message, and caught the two of them without a struggle.

Then, after being named, the team was officially introduced to the new members, the Ralts siblings. Selene, the female, was the younger one, while Helios was the older brother.

Frejya didn't join in the hazing of the new members by Sekhmet and Neptune, but she didn't turn Selene away when the Ralts came to join her for sitting in the grass to watch the other Pokémon train during breaks. The company wasn't bad; like Minerva, Selene was quiet and didn't waste words where they were unneeded. She knew how to enjoy the silence.

* * *

"Here's the thing," Dawn said. It was a sunny day – contrary to what the rest of the world believed, Sinnoh _could_ be warm and bright, especially in the middle of summer – and a lovely one at that. They were all sitting outside, in the shade under a pleasant smelling tree. The bug types attracted to the scents ignored them, and they ignored the bug types. It worked. "Now that Themis evolved, she's going to have to get used to having eyes."

Themis flapped her wings. Having gotten eyes for the first time in her life, the newly-evolved Golbat was enjoying the sensation of having an entirely new sense at her disposal. It had only been a day, but already she was getting better at being out in the light.

It was a little too bright for her at the moment outside, so earlier on Dawn had gone out and bought a pair of black glasses and given it to Themis for her use. With the accessory and the evolution, she was swaggering enough to rival Neptune, which was saying something.

"And then there's the Ralts Twins," Dawn continued on. She wasn't sure if the two psychics were actually twins or not, but the name had sort of stuck with her. Selene hid behind Helios quite often, and didn't seem to be much of an offensive battler. She was much better at using status moves like double team and growl.

"You guys are psychic types," she said. Because they weren't from the Kalos region, they lacked the fairy subtype the Ralts family native to the fairy region had. "So you'll be weak to ghost types, but I think we can make it work. She'll probably use a Gastly or some evolution of one for sure, since they're the commonest ghost types around, and they're poison types so we can always hit them with a psychic move."

Dawn pointed to some boulders nearby. Route 208, being the stretch of distance between Hearthome City and Mt. Coronet, was littered with a lot of boulders, all of various sizes and shapes. "Pick a small one and practice lifting it with your confusion attacks," she instructed. "Once you get the hang of lifting one, move onto a bigger one, and keep doing that. We'll work on your control before power."

She searched her brains for the research she'd done last night.

"Neptune, you'll have to push with water tactics. Ghost types are pretty slippery, so we'll work on setting bubble mines in the air to make sure we can keep track of where the ghosts will be when they try to hide. Practice your bubble beam with Themis. She can work on her flying with visuals, and you can work on making bubble mines in the air. Ghosts levitate a lot, so it's important that you get most of them floating around instead of on the ground. Remember to make the air damp with water sport."

When her starter and Themis nodded in understanding, she moved onto Sekhmet and Frejya. "Bite is a dark type move, so that's your ace in the hole against Fantina," she said to the electric type, who bared her fangs all too happily. "But ghost types are tricky, and they're good at status, so you'll be working with a blindfold on. Practice using your electricity and senses to track attacks and foes. I'll be tossing pebbles at you for a while to get you used to not having sight before we move onto harder stuff."

Dawn produced a strip of black cloth. Sekhmet didn't look particularly happy at being told that her sight would be blocked, but she nodded, understanding that it was necessary. "And Frejya. One of the twins can work with you on improving and speeding up your foresight while the other one lifts boulders. When you have that down, use quick attack to hit Sekhmet while she's blindfolded. Sekhmet can run charge and spark for a physical counter shield, but she has to work on biting as well, okay? Don't hurt each other seriously."

They all got up, and shuffled off to do what she'd instructed. Helios worked on lifting boulders, thin white arms straining as the watmel-sized boulder shook as it levitated in the air, enshrouded in a bluish psychic energy. Selene came over to Frejya to help with her foresight, and Sekhmet came over so Dawn could tie the blindfold onto her.

While she tied the fabric, Neptune got off to the side where he wouldn't get everyone wet. Themis flew after him, ready to show off just how well she could fly. "Don't get too cocky," she called to the two of them before turning her attention back to Sekhmet. "Comfortable?"

The blindfolded Luxio nodded. "Lurr," she made a sound that was mostly growl, partially purr.

"Let's get started," Dawn said. She backed up, and grabbing the appropriately sized pebbles she'd gathered earlier, began to toss them at Sekhmet.

Behind her, she heard the sound of bubbles popping and Themis screeching, with Neptune letting out huffs of arrogant laughter every now and then when a bubble popped particularly loudly. Frejya and Selene were quiet, but they were focused. Helios was already getting the watmel-sized rock under much better control.

There was a lot of daylight left, even as the days got shorter approaching September. Dawn tossed two pebbles at a time, and then increased her projectile number to three. Sekhmet, mane crackling with electricity, was getting better at avoiding them, or at the very least turning to take the attack in a more well-defended area like her mane or flank. Occasionally she bit the stones out of the air.

Everyone was so determined – if they kept it up like this, they were going to win this gym battle.

* * *

When dinnertime came rolling around, everyone was too tired to walk with her except for the psychics, so she returned everyone except for them. The two Ralts had joined her of their free will, but that didn't change the fact that she didn't know much about them, and they her.

She opened up first, and took the first step. She told them her goals, her dreams of being a Champion that was strong enough to protect the Sinnoh region, she told them her reason for wanting to protect Sinnoh, about what had happened years ago that had changed the world and how she wanted to change it for the better instead of hiding in fear.

"So, anything you guys want?"

Selene hesitated, but eventually shrugged, mirroring her brother's actions.

"Well, if you see anything," she began.

"Excuse me, young lady. The one with the Ralts."

Dawn blinked and turned around to see a curious-looking woman staring at her. "Hello," she said. "Are you going to the psychic type workshop?"

"The what?"

The woman rummaged in her bag's pocket for a bit before pulling out a rumpled purple pamphlet. "A few psychics are coming in for a free demonstration and lessons on the wonders of psychic types. They're also giving hints on how to best train your psychics."

Sometimes, humans were born with abilities similar to Pokémon. The most common of these rarities were human 'psychics'. Humans couldn't do everything a psychic Pokémon could, but they often specialized in one area, such as telekinesis, telepathy, future sights or extrasensory perception. Humans couldn't do all of these – they could have a gift for one, maybe two of these gifts, but it was exceedingly rare to find someone who could do more than that.

"The psychics also teach humans attending how to open one's Inner Eye."

Dawn stopped herself from making a face. "Maybe I'll check it out later," she said politely, giving a neutral answer.

The woman nodded and left. Dawn didn't have any particular interest in actually attending, and apparently her two psychics felt it. Selene looked disappointed, and while Helios didn't show anything it was clear even he had wanted to visit the workshop.

Oh, why not. Both of them perked up when they felt her emotions give way.

"We'll heal everyone first," she warned. The workshop was supposed to take place at a room in the Pokémon Center she happened to be staying at.

After dropping off her other Pokémon with the nurse so they could be healed back to full health, she wandered into the room booked for the session. No one inside looked like a psychic. They weren't dressed in flowing robes or dusty shawls with old sequins like a gypsy woman. Instead they wore sweatshirts and jeans, t-shirts and skirts.

She joined the circle of people, Helios and Selene at each side. There was a Chimecho, a few Abra here and there, a Spoink, and then a teal green Pokémon with a large, bulbous head and orb-like green eyes. The trainer introduced it as an "Elgym", a psychic Pokémon most commonly found in the Unova region.

The head psychic leading had his Hypno go around with its pendulum leading the psychics in some sort of a cross between a lecture and a demonstration. Both Ralts listened very attentively while Dawn took notes of what the human psychic, who claimed to have the power of extrasensory perception, told her. So far it was all things she knew, basics of childhood lessons on how to protect her mind from psychic probes, readings and mental sweeps. Nothing new.

"To be a good trainer in control of psychics," the instructor, introduced as Britney, told them after finishing the first part of her lesson. A candle-like Pokémon hopped to the center of the circle where it sat and began to burn with a purple flame. "But it also means that you have to let yourself See what's happening both physically and spiritually."

Dawn grimaced. Helios and Selene noticed her chagrin through their psychic senses, and they both turned to give her a quizzical look.

"I'll be going around the circle," Britney said, "and as I do so, I want you to focus on something. Don't obsess about it – just have it in the back of your mind and clear your mind of everything else. Breathe deeply, in with your nostrils, out with your mouth. In, out, in, out."

As she made her way through the circle, she touched the participants on their forehead. She made some suggestions – focus, relax, breathe.

Then she was in front of her. "Relax, Dawn," she said, beginning to reach for her. "It's alright to-"

Her fingers touched Dawn's forehead, and she stopped talking. "Oh," she said in a surprised tone.

Dawn sighed. "Yeah," she said flatly.

"Oh, well," Britney appeared embarrassed. "Can I maybe-"

Dawn waved her off. "It's fine," she said, cheeks feeling uncomfortably hot as the other members of the group began to mutter and peek at her in curiosity.

Britney hesitated, but moved on. Dawn just focused on meditating until everyone got right back to their own business.

She felt concern wash over her as Helios touched her knee worriedly. Selene peeked at her from behind her brother. "It's okay, guys," she said. "Work on the exercise you were told to do."

They didn't seem convinced, but they did as she asked to and went back to practicing with their psychic powers.

After, though, when they were in the room rented in the Pokémon Center, they asked her through charades and some sort of psychic emotion pressuring her mind on just what had gone wrong. Her other Pokémon heard, and they became curious as well.

No getting out of it. Dawn sat on her bed, crossing her legs under her. "People have this . . . thing called an Inner Eye," she said, gesturing vaguely at her face and neck. "It's supposed to help with psychic things, like walking through the dream world or seeing the future or . . . or reading the aura of other people. I was born with my Inner Eye blind."

And Britney had noticed what her grandfather had shortly after her birth. The Steeles were famous for many things, and one of them was the family trait of aura reading and manipulation, an ability passed down by their most famous ancestor, Sir Aaron Steele, a knight from the Iron Queen ages. It was important enough to the Steeles to the point where if one wanted to be the head of the family, one had to have a very clear Inner Eye as well as some powers that had something to do with aura.

Almost all of the Steeles had their Inner Eyes open to some degree, that degree normally being fairly large due to their heritage and encouragement of aura-related gifts. Around half had aura-related powers. Dawn's was completely and utterly blind. She'd been told, over and over again throughout her life, that she had a very lovely and powerful aura, but no powers.

It wasn't like it hindered her in everyday life – for one, it mostly meant that she was more gullible to any illusions or nightmares deliberately caused by ghost or psychic-types, which could be kept away by other psychics like Jackie – but it was a little embarrassing, especially since the rest of her family made such a big deal about it. Johanna didn't care for such things. She had her Eye open to a mediocre amount, so she'd never been considered as head of the family, which was why she had chosen to go and make her own fortunes through her own efforts. She passed the lesson of getting results through her own hard work and not by the power of the family fortune and name to Dawn, and Dawn took that lesson to heart, but . . .

But in times like this it still was rather embarrassing. It wasn't impossible to be born with a blind Eye, but it was highly unusual for even normal people to not have a crack or a sliver of their Eye open. Psychics, especially, would know just how odd that was first hand, and everyone at the group would have based their opinions off of Britney's own judgement.

Selene bowed her head, looking guilty. "It's not your fault," Dawn said as the feeling of her Pokémon's guilt was felt at the edges of her mind. Jackie, her mother's Medicham, had trained her with feeling things making contact with her mind since she had been seven. Her Eye may have been blind, a fact that couldn't be changed, but that didn't mean that she couldn't protect her mind or tell the difference between her own emotions and a psychic's emotional wave affecting her mind. "So, from what you've learned, you think you can show off what you've got when you're training tomorrow?"

Dawn wasn't really fooling anyone with her cheerful talk, especially the two psychics whose species were known to be sensitive to the emotions of those around them. She was still pretty upset by that.

But Helios and Selene nodded, understanding that this was what their trainer wanted.

"Good," Dawn said. "Okay, bed time for you all."

Her Pokémon didn't protest when she recalled them, not even Neptune or Sekhmet. When they were in their balls, Dawn put them on the bed and took out a few books. Her journal – her record of her feelings and daily events – but also textbooks and workbooks for math. She didn't feel much like sleeping, so she might as well catch up on her studying.

She opened her book, looked at problems that made her head spin and slammed it shut. Shrugging on the jacket of the tracksuit she was using as her pajamas, she left her room to go to the shared bathroom. No one was inside – good.

Dawn stood in front of the mirror and looked at herself. Her blue hair messy and overgrown despite having been washed and brushed only an hour before, and her face was chubbier than it had been before going on her journey, with circles under her eyes going deeper and darker. The tolls of not getting a haircut, eating more junk food than was probably good for her instead of homemade food and not getting enough sleep. Travelling demanded its sacrifices, and while she was taking the easiest, safest way of travelling – sticking only to main routes without wandering into wilderness, staying in cities and centers – it still took its toll on her. Thankfully Steele genes didn't do acne, and so she didn't suffer from pimples, but still. She definitely wasn't looking her best.

But this was her, as she was. She could mope about things that were beyond her control, old things she had dealt with and swept past her before, or she could look to other things to focus on.

Her eyes still prickled. Dawn washed her face and looked until she was sure that her eyes weren't watering.

Then, and only then, did she return to her room. She ignored the math in favour of getting sleep. There were nine days to the gym battle, and she wanted to be able to train in the morning instead of being a zombie.

* * *

Dawn was probably battling Fantina around this time. Barry cracked his shoulders, and then his neck, and then his knuckles before shaking his body out and letting out an odd exhale by vibrating his tongue and lips.

The Solaceon Tournament. It would be his last Poké Ball rank tournament before he won his next badge.

At his side, Champ yawned. He had, including his starter, four Pokémon on him, all of whom were out and about. At home or in the box he had two more, but both the Chatot and the Murkrow didn't seem interested in battling. In fact, he suspected that they had only come along with him because both of them happened to be infatuated with Starling. Starling seemed more interested in the Murkrow than the Chatot, but in fear of a vengeful talker neither he nor Barry were planning on informing the mimicking Pokémon of that particular trivia.

He shook his arms out and cracked his knuckles. "You guys ready?

There was no hesitation in their answers. "Then let's do this!"

* * *

"I want to work on your magical leaf technique today," Dawn informed the Ralts Twins the following day.

Both of them nodded, and began to pull leaves from the surrounding plant life to use when Dawn raised a hand. "Do you guys need the leaves to pull that off?" she asked. "What happens if there are no plants around you?"

Helios and Selene exchanged looks, before Helios dropped the leaves he had gathered and raised his hands. Green energy flowed off of him and shaped themselves into spade-like projectiles that he flung into the air. They weren't leaves, not physically, but it was certainly shaped like them.

Dawn told them to work on using the energy instead of relying on leaves. Magical leaf was a pretty nice move, as seen in the last gym battle where Gardenia had used their homing ability to always hit Pokémon. Fantina, too, used the move frequently – even in her third badge challenges, the videos of challenges made public showed her using magical leaf frequently. Because most ghost types had a pretty high special attack, it was used devastatingly in combination with their infallible accuracy.

"I want you to try magical leaf against Themis," she said, waving her Golbat forward. She was the closest thing Dawn had to a ghost type with her agility and sneak tactics, and since she was doubly resistant to the move she would be fine while the Twins could get stronger practicing against her without fear of serious injury. "I'm pretty sure Fantina's gym isn't going to have plants, so try using your energy only for the attack."

Helios and Selene both drew upon a grass type magic from within themselves and formed leaf-shaped projectiles before flinging it at Themis. The Golbat dodged them with glee, only to squeal when the leaves rounded back and struck her. She flapped in the air, regaining her balance, but chattered in confusion.

"Magical leaf can't be dodged," Dawn explained to her. "Unless you use protect or something similar. Ready for the next round?"

Themis made a few thoughtful clicking noises and nodded.

"Go," Dawn instructed. At her command, Helios and Selene began firing again. This time, Themis didn't bother trying to dodge them. She used her wings, fangs, and even her small feet to try and knock them out of her face. It made for a funny sight, and Dawn would have laughed had she not caught sight of something. "Wait," Dawn raised her hand, and the Ralts stopped firing. "Themis, open your mouth."

Themis did so, showing Dawn the inside of her large mouth. On one of the fangs was hooked the remnants of the fizzling energy shaped like a leaf.

Dawn pried it out carefully. The energy was fizzling, and looked like it was being corroded from a hole punctured in the middle of the 'leaf'. The edges being eaten away were tinted purple, almost like . . .

Almost like poison.

"Alright," she said slowly, "Sekhmet, Frejya, you already know what to work on. Selene, Helios, practice teleporting rapidly. Themis, use astonish and bite to try and chase them down – teleport should be similar enough to the disappearing tricks ghosts like to use for you to get used to tracking fast movements. Neptune," she hesitated. She had an idea. "I've got a plan, but I need to check something first, and I need your approval."

Neptune let out a low, questioning chirp.

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "You probably won't like it."

Her Pokémon went off to do as she asked, and Dawn took the time to dig through her bag's physical storage compartment. She kept most of her things in the digital item storage, but some things she kept physically in the bag for convenience's purposes, like a few extra potions, status healing medication, Poké balls, spare change, a pen . . . .

And the booklet on Piplup Professor Rowan had given her. She dug it out, and flipped through the pages until she got to the section about water storage. There were the basics, like placing water in the ball so as to give the water type within some water to work with in case it couldn't produce enough, the specifics of water necessities with the Piplup line, and then . . . .

"It _should_ work," Dawn concluded after re-reading that section three times and checking the entire booklet. "If it does, we take care of not only any magical leaves Fantina throws at us, but also gives us an edge."

Neptune made an impatient sound. He didn't want her talking to herself, he wanted her explaining what she had in mind.

So she did. He huffed. She was right, he didn't like it. But he was capable of doing it, and he was the only one who could pull it off.

"We'll need to practice it a few times, to see if we can get it," Dawn said. "If we can, great. If we can't-"

Neptune let out a snorting sound and pounding his chest with his flipper.

* * *

"I must admit," Fantina said, carefully straightening out the folds in her dress. Unlike the plain, dressed-down appearance she had made at the contest hall, she was decked out fully in a ballroom gown with jewelry and fancy coiffeur. Her attitude, too, seemed to have grown much bolder and more flamboyant. "I was expecting to see you sooner." Sooner than two and a half weeks, that was.

Dawn smiled apologetically. "Sorry," she said. "I caught some new Pokémon, and we were working on some strategies we wanted to use."

Fantina nodded, her eyes considerably softer. As a wanderer, she didn't appreciate things that tied her down, but as a gym leader she truly did approve of trainers who planned and thought ahead. Ghost types, her specialty, needed careful consideration to be dealt with, for they were tricky and mischievous, spooky and frightening. Their every move was unpredictable for those not used to them, something she saw far too much of in her challengers who thought they could just march in and beat some ghosts like they were those ghost busters. "So," she said. "Let us see your strategy!"

After the addition of the Ralts Twins, it had taken nearly a week for everyone to get used to and comfortable to each other's presence, and used to everything they were taught, as well as the new roles they were assigned. Then it had taken even longer to drill in new strategies, and make sure everything worked like it was supposed to. Several ideas had been scrapped in the process, and new ones drafted.

But now they were here for the gym battle. "I challenge you," Dawn declared aloud.

"And I accept!" Fantina laughed, clearly getting into her stage persona. "I rather do like you, _chère_. You remind me of myself. Trying new things – you are primarily a trainer, yet you entered a contest so bravely! Learning new things, challenging oneself – _t__rès fantastique!_"

Dawn wondered if she would have been so brave and daring had her mother not been who she was. Then she remembered that if her mom wasn't who she was, she wouldn't have exactly gotten roped into the whole thing in the first place.

Still, she'd done nicely. "Thanks."

The gym leader smiled rather impishly, reminding Dawn of a trickster ghost. "But I shall win," she said mysteriously. "For that is what gym leaders do, _non_?"

"Well," Dawn said. "I hate to be contrary," – a small lie, because she did like it – "but I'm the one winning this one. Because I'm a trainer, and that's what _we_ do."

Fantina threw her head back and laughed. Her laugh wasn't mocking – it was genuine amusement – and it echoed off the stone walls of her gym, reverberating until it sounded like there were multiple Fantinas laughing into a microphone. "_Enfin_," she said when she was done. "We shall have to see, _oui_?"

When she was dressed up and decked out, Fantina spoke a lot more Kalosian. Dawn wondered if that was her putting on a stage persona. "_Oui_."

The referee, who had been ignored despite his several failed attempts to actually start a match on time for once in Fantina's gym leader career history, was finally able to step forwards. "Begin!"

As the gym leader, Fantina let out the first Pokémon – a Duskull. "So," she said, "who shall battle my Colette?"

"Sekhmet will," she said, letting out her electric wildcat.

The Duskull flinched at the intimidating aura radiating off her Luxio, but quickly composed herself, saying much about just how well-trained the ghost was. "Bite!"

"Stay calm!" Fantina's eyes narrowed. "Future sight!"

Duskull's one visible eye, behind its two sockets, glowed pink once before returning to its blood-red state. She then yelped as Sekhmet's jaws closed around her.

And once Sekhmet bit, she didn't let go until she had won. The ghost tried to drift out, but every time she even faded a bit Sekhmet's sharp fangs would bring enough pain to her through its dark typing that Colette would lose her concentration and rematerialize.

"Will-o-wisp!"

Sekhmet ducked, barely avoiding the balls of blue, eerie flames, and then lunged to bite the top of Colette's face. She flinched, and screamed before trying to use will-o-wisp again. This time, Sekhmet jumped backwards, scrambling to avoid getting burned.

"Shadow sneak!"

"Charge into spark!"

Colette dove for the shadows, and began to manipulate the shades into zigzagging towards Sekhmet, who charged before moving into a spark that surrounded herself with crackling lightning. The Duskull jumped out of the shadows to hit Sekhmet, but after landing the hit found herself pinned with a lightning-charged Luxio.

And Luxio were known to have claws charged with electricity. Colette wailed at the electricity being dug into her, before Sekhmet proceeded to bite the ghost once more. She didn't let up until the Duskull slumped like an emptied bag, the red light behind her mask going out.

First round, check.

Fantina recalled Duskull. "Very good," she said. "But how about – Marguerite?"

A Haunter burst out of the sphere she threw. Unlike the silent Duskull, the shade cackled unnervingly as she licked at her ghostly lips.

Haunter was a poison type as well as a ghost type, and poison types were weak to psychic attacks. Dawn switched Sekhmet out. "Helios, just like we practiced!"

Her Ralts focused. The Haunter, assuming that he was charging up an attack, surged forwards.

Right before she could attack, however, Helios simply disappeared from his place with a small popping sound. Confused, the Haunter turned to the source of life he felt – halfway across the arena, where the Ralts stood with his arms extended towards her. A confusion attack ripped free from his mind, and struck the Haunter.

Super-effective.

Dawn grinned. Teleporting short distances. She wasn't sure how teleport worked, but Helios and Selene both knew how to use it, and so they had based their strategy for the two of them around the mobility the move provided. The Ralts Twins would use the move to leave the immediate proximity of the ghost type foe before using their longer ranged attacks, like confusion, to hit them.

Confusion, being a relatively weak psychic attack, would be weakened by the distance between the foe and her Ralts. The type advantage against the Haunter's secondary typing, however, would make up for it.

Helios teleported across the field again, and the Haunter snarled in frustration. The Ralts grinned in satisfaction at the way it was going and prepared to teleport again when he gasped.

Dawn gasped as well. A pink beam of light had burst out of nowhere and struck Helios in the chest. He staggered, surprised at the future sight attack, and his teleport didn't go through in time. Marguerite was there in moments, and then she lashed down with shadows wrapped around her claw-like hands.

The purple energy wrapped around like claws didn't leave physical cuts or draw blood, but it left dark burn-like marks where they touched, and the shadows stood out markedly against the white of his body. Helios fainted, just like that, knocked unconscious by the incredibly fast shadows. "Next," Fantina said.

Selene insisted on going out to avenge her brother, showing anger for once. She managed to teleport out of the way and ended up halfway across the field. The Haunter, annoyed, turned to pursue her, but having the momentum on her side, Selene managed to teleport out of the way. She turned to use confusion when Fantina tipped her head with a smile as she snapped her fingers.

Dawn blinked and then looked at the field. Marguerite was there, all of a sudden, right in Selene's face with a harsh punch to the face. "Sucker punch," Fantina explained as Selene fell to her knees. Panting, the Ralts tried to stand back up. "Shadow claw. Is it not powerful?"

Like Helios, Selene was taken out of the picture immediately as the shadow-tipped claws slashed. Dawn tried to not cringe as she returned the unconscious Ralts. The thing she had noticed about the two Ralts was that while they had a surprisingly decent special attack, they were quite slow, and rather fragile in terms of defense. The speed part, they had somehow managed to mitigate with teleport in the field, but it was defense that they could do nothing about. Once they were caught, it was hard to get out.

"Very," Dawn admitted as her mind raced. So her psychic duo was out of action without even being able to use their plans fully and take out at least one Pokémon. She hadn't thought about this outcome, but . . . .

"Themis!"

She also had an ace up her sleeve. Dawn had learned from the last evolution right before a gym battle, and she didn't let Themis fight until she was sure she was used to her new form.

Now it paid off. Themis matched the Haunter easily in speed, dodging the sucker punch aimed at her face with ease, almost skipping out of the way in the air. "Confuse ray!"

Fantina nodded. "Confuse ray as well, Marguerite!"

The ray of light from Themis reached the Haunter first, but the other ray hit Themis as well. They were both equally confused. "Bite!"

Themis wavered in the air, very nearly plunging forwards headfirst onto the ground, but at the last moment she pulled herself up and bit the Haunter, who squealed in pain. The ghost was fast, but it had very little bulk to withstand more bites.

Fantina raised a hand. "Potion break, _s__'il vous plait_." The ref waved his flag.

While the still-confused Haunter was sprayed with a super potion, Themis shook her head. When she glanced back at Dawn, her eyes were clear and her flaps were steady.

Her opponent wasn't so lucky with recovering from the confusing daze, which meant that she had to finish this quickly before the Haunter did get well. At Dawn's orders to bite again, Themis darted forwards gnashing her wide jaws. In her confusion, Marguerite not only got bit, but accidently knocked herself out by plummeting head-first into the ground.

"Yeah!" Dawn cheered as Fantina recalled Marguerite.

"I would not get, how you say, so cocky just yet," the gym leader warned. "Maryse!"

A slender figure in what looked like dark mauve robes rustled. The hat-like arrangement of filaments lifted and Dawn saw red eyes filled with cunning glittering like the jewels around the ghost's neck.

"She is, as said in the Common Language," Fantina smirked, "my ace in the hole in gym battles of this level."

"Themis, confuse ray!" Dawn didn't want to see just what made the Mismagius Fantina's ace.

"Too slow!" Fantina sang as psychic energy formed into a ball in front of the red gems before shooting forwards like a star with a long, trailing tail after it. The psybeam crashed into the confuse ray and burst through the dim, pulsing light before hitting Themis squarely in her face.

Themis was down with one hit. Dawn recalled her, alarmed. The Mismagius was fast, and strong.

But that meant that her defense wasn't that great.

Or so the logic went because _something_ had to be sacrificed for that much speed and power. Hoping that her guess was correct, Dawn let Sekhmet out onto the field. It was time to do away with all the plans she'd been cooking up and go back to hammering away with type advantages, just like how they had started. "Just keep biting her!"

Fantina raised an eyebrow, but raised her hand forwards in an order to attack. "Return the favour with your shadow ball!"

This time, shadowy matter formed a large glob-like sphere in front of the gems on the dress-like appendages of the Mismagius before it was fired at Sekhmet. "Charge!" she yelped.

Sekhmet pulled up electricity to wrap around her body just as the glob hit her. There was the sound of crackling and sizzling, and when the ghastly energy had faded away the charge was flickering around Sekhmet in an unstable manner, but the Luxio simply shook off the hit before lunging forwards to bite the witch-like Pokémon.

Shrieking in pain, Maryse fired another shadow ball, this time hitting Sekhmet on her back. Dawn's Luxio howled, but lunged to bite again.

Dawn thought it was a good idea, using a dark type move, but spark, which wrapped electricity around Sekhmet's body and offered a bit of a shield to attacks, might have been a better idea.

Fantina took the chance. "Psybeam!"

While Sekhmet charged to take another bite out of the Mismagius, she fired psychic energy once again. Sekhmet tried to weave out of the way, but Maryse controlled the psybeam with expert guidance, and the beam moved right along with her to aim at Sekhmet's face. "No!" Dawn cried, and Sekhmet hesitated in surprise and slight confusion.

It didn't make a difference. The psychic beam hit, and exploded upon contact. When the smoke cleared away, Sekhmet was lying on the ground, unable to get back to her feet. There was blood from the wound on her head, and Dawn's heart pounded irregularly as she tried to get a better look at just what had happened.

Nothing too serious, she realized. There wasn't enough blood spilled to be anything but a minor wound, let alone a threatening one. Sekhmet was stirring, and while she wasn't getting back to her feet she was definitely wiggling and straining, trying to get back to her feet.

She was alright. Out of the battle for now, but alright. Dawn sighed.

"Luxio is unable to battle!" the referee cried when Sekhmet couldn't get back on her feet under the time limit.

Sekhmet snarled rudely at that judgement and tried to struggle back onto her feet. "Oh, no you don't," Dawn recalled her and put the ball in stasis. Just because she was alright didn't mean that she was going to be pushing herself any further in the battle, not when there were two more Pokémon waiting in line to fight if need be. "You did fine, just fine, so rest. I'll get you to a center as soon as we're done."

And she had done just fine. Across the field, Maryse was still floating in the air, but her breathing was ragged and her jagged mouth wasn't in as big smile as her former grin anymore. She was weakened, starting to tire from facing Dawn's previous Pokémon. It could be a close fight, but there was no way she could face both Neptune _and_ Frejya and come out with a win.

Especially considering what she had in store next. Dawn replaced Sekhmet's Poké ball with Neptune's. "Go! Bubble beam!"

"Confuse ray!"

Even hurt and winded, Maryse was still faster than Neptune. He cawed in confusion when his eyes were dazzled by the odd light, but he managed to fire the bubble beam away from himself and in the direction of his foe. The bubbles created a screen that acted as a distorting lens for the Pokémon. Neptune, being the user of the move, was used to sights like this. Maryse apparently wasn't.

That didn't stop the ghost Pokémon. She fired off magical leaves without needing instruction to do so from her trainer, and the glowing leaves shot right through the bubble screen to home into Neptune. The spells would ensure that the leaves found their target and hit it.

"Water sport into metal claw!"

There weren't leaves or shrubs or plant life, in general, on the arena – it was just the standard field with nothing on it. Since Maryse wasn't a grass-type Pokémon, she had to do what her Ralts did, and create leaves out of grass type energy with magic.

Neptune shook off the confusion, breathed out, and covered the arena with fine water. The 'leaves' began coming, and he lifted his glowing flippers up, ready to fight them.

When the option was available, Pokémon that didn't have leaves of their own liked to use magic on actual leaves. Not only did it consume less energy – not having to produce and form the grass-element into shapes – but the form of the attack was much more stable.

Neptune coughed, but he didn't give up on the water sport until the entire arena on his side was filling with a thick fog. Even when his shape began to blur, he let the water come out.

"Hang in there," she muttered. Because magical leaves were so unstable when made only out of magic, they could dissipate, or at the very least weaken against something that grass types were weak to. Like, say, a hailstorm . . .

Or a band of poisoned mist and bubbles.

The magical leaves went through the bands of moisture, but there was no sound of pain coming from Neptune, or the thump of leaves hitting a body. Instead, there was a distinctly metallic sound, like two knives brushing against each other and a hissing noise, like acid melting into material.

Neptune, inside the mist, coughed again. He'd been poisoned since the start of the match, courtesy of Themis. Whatever leaves that managed to get through the blanket of poison had probably been knocked out by his metal claw, so except for the damage taken by poisoned status, he was still healthy. The bubbles weren't just from an ordinary bubble beam, either. To aid the process, they were water-heavy bubbles. Every time one popped, it would add to the misty band around Neptune.

Their enemy was time. Time would wear out at Neptune's stamina until the poison struck him down, and also let Fantina figure out their trick. "Bubble beam," Dawn called. Out of the band of poisoned mist flew bubbles that exploded all around the field, several of which did so after hitting Maryse. When they burst, they added to the mist that was beginning to crawl over to Maryse. Sooner or later, she'd be breathing in the miasma as well.

The ghost was definitely fragile, but it still stayed up. "Psybeam, sweep," Fantina said, sweeping her arms out herself. Maryse charged up the psychic attack, and then starting from the left began to methodically destroy the band of poison mist by burning through them.

"Bubble beam again!" She had to add to the mist's supply, but also combat that psybeam and prevent it from hurting Neptune any further.

Before the beam reached him, Neptune was spitting out bubbles. Dawn gritted her teeth when she saw that they were tinged with purple, indication that the poisoning had gotten close to the limit. Soon his water attacks would be glowing with torrent's boost, if he wasn't knocked out before he reached that point.

Because it wasn't the water in his ball that was poisoned, but rather himself, Neptune could always replenish himself with fresh water while using the water containing poison from his status-inflicted body for attacks. That initial band of bubble beam and water sport should have washed out his poisoned water supply and replaced it with the fresh water in his ball, so the fact that he was still spitting out poison told her that the poison was spreading faster throughout his body.

During practices, Neptune had gone two minutes, tops, once he reached this condition before he had to rest, and that was if he didn't move around at all to speed up the poison's flow through his body.

As discreetly as she could, Dawn looked at her watch. Unfortunately, Fantina noticed her movement. Despite her flamboyance and her other job as a top coordinator, she still was a talented gym leader who had earned her spot, and she put the pieces together.

"Maryse, away from the mist and the water, it's been poisoned. Get rid of it with psybeam. That's quite the risk you're taking," she commented as the psybeam began destroying the bubbles that it faced. "Poisoning your Pokémon before? Very creative use of the move water sport, I admit, but quite risky. Especially if you've gotten a ranged attacker like Maryse here as your foe."

She was telling her. There wasn't even a point in using bubble mines – Maryse was just too fast, and didn't try sneaking off into shadows.

Just before the bubble beam was defeated, the water attack began to push back at the psybeam, its bubbles both clearly purple and glowing. Torrent.

"Come on, Neptune!" Dawn shouted. The Skitty was out of the bag, and this was no longer about hidden tricks. "Push! You can do it!"

On the field, it was all Neptune could do to not fall over onto his flippers. The poison was getting worse, and his stomach felt like some malicious spirit was wreaking havoc in his guts, grabbing and harshly twisting them.

But if he let a little thing like poison bother him so much, what kind of team leader was he? He braved the pain, focusing instead on drawing the water through his body and out of his beak in the form of bubble beam, well aware that even letting the water circulate through his system to cleanse it wasn't working very well now.

The bubble beam gained more and more ground until it had pushed the psybeam by the midpoint between the two Pokémon.

"Back up, Maryse," Fantina said, and the Mimagius drifted backwards while maintaining the beam from the jewel on her chest to combat the gaining bubble beam. "Your Prinplup can't afford to move too much, lest he speed up the poisoning, _non_?"

She was right, and Dawn knew it.

The Mismagius laughed – time was on her side, not his – and fluttered her robes in an almost mocking way.

Neptune, on the field, heard everyone speaking. Heard them discuss his inability to move, as if he feared the poison spreading further.

He did – but no one had to know that. He was better than this. He could do this.

Neptune took a deep breath, and then cut off his bubble beam altogether before rolling out of the way, just in time to avoid the psybeam crashing into the spot where he'd been. The mist, still up, served to hide his movements. Every step hurt him greatly, sending a stab of pain not only through his abdomen but also his chest area, but he ignored it, instead letting his triggered ability guide his movements.

One. He took a deep breath, and felt his lungs protest in pain.

Two. His flippers began to glow. If he was going down, he was going down with a fight.

Three. He charged out of the mist, a few feet from where he'd stood originally, metal claws at the ready.

The magical leaves Maryse had unleashed to track him down had to go through the miasma first, and weakened by the poison, they couldn't reach him in time as he revealed where he'd been hiding. The Mismagius, having expected him to come from elsewhere, barely turned in time to face her foe.

Neptune leaped into the air, intent on clawing the ghost and taking her down with him, but a particularly harsh stab of poison had him misstep right before launching. He fell to the ground, just a step away from where the ghost was levitating. He didn't get back up, and the referee deemed him unable to battle.

Dawn returned him and checked her watch. Two minutes and fifty-seven seconds. "Good job," she said, holding his ball close to her lips. "I am so, so proud of you. Rest now. Let Frejya finish up."

She released her Buneary in a section of the field not covered with the poisonous miasma. She took a look at her opponent and nodded. Fantina shook her head. "_Magnifique_," she said, while Maryse destroyed the curl of miasma closest to her with a casual psybeam. "_Incroyable_. Such battling, I did not expect from a girl of your age and badge level . . . it is a shame I will not be able to give you your badge this challenge."

"We'll see about that," said Dawn. "Frejya," she called, and the Buneary flicked her left ear into the air in recognition. "Quick attack!"

On the field, Maryse was tired. She'd gone through a lot of the foe's Pokémon, enough to make her mama proud, and each of them had put up quite the fight. When the normal type was a blur of movement she made no attempt to stop the foe, despite having the ability to do so. The best thing, she reasoned to herself, that the normal type could do with the quick attack was come close to her. The child was under lots of pressure, and probably forgot her type matchups in a desperate attempt to hit quickly in hopes of ending the battle soon. She would be able to deal with any attempts at closer combat with either magical leaf or psybeam.

Fantina, though, had a good idea of what the Buneary had been up to while standing still and listening to her speak. "Maryse, dodge!"

The ghost turned to give Fantina a disbelieving look, and then Frejya struck her side with a vicious quick attack to the side of her head – and made contact. With a cry, she was pushed several meters back. She staggered, and looked at what was clearly a normal type shifting her weight back and forth on her hind legs, face blank and impassive.

Foresight.

Realizing the danger, Maryse began rustling her cloak to form and send out magical leaves when Frejya kicked her in the middle of her torso with a second quick attack, finishing off the foe her teammates had fought. The Mismagius crashed to the ground, unconscious and unable to continue levitating in the air.

Fantina recalled her Pokémon before clapping. "_Très fantastique!_So, so very strong," she nodded approvingly. "You, your Pokémon, both are admirably strong! Very well done – I shall honour your strength with the Relic Badge!"

Dawn let out a yell of triumph, high-fived Frejya – who was grinning in a rare show of her emotions – and jumped up and down in a general show of happiness. "Yeah!"

It felt good, winning a gym battle in the first try again. She wanted to keep it up.

Fantina shook her head even as she handed over both the badge and a TM for shadow claw. "There are still a great many number of trainers, all so powerful," she reminded Dawn.

That there was. "Then I'll just get stronger, one at a time," Dawn replied.

The purple-haired woman smiled down kindly at the girl. "A good answer. I wish you fortune in your life's path."

Dawn managed to keep composed until she got out of the gym. Once the doors closed behind her, she let out another whoop of joy and pumped her fist in the air – an action that was copied by Frejya behind her – before she remembered that she had to go visit the center and get everyone healed so she could share the good news.

"Great job today, Frejya," she told her Buneary as they walked towards the direction of the nearest center.

The Buneary flicked her ears modestly. The plan had always been for her to go out after Neptune in the case that he fell before they won. The moment she was on the field, it was her job to use foresight and ensure that she could take on any ghost she was presented with. Unless Dawn gave the code word – ice beam in this case – Frejya was supposed to ignore everything Dawn said until after foresight was done. Once she could face against ghosts properly, she was then supposed to give a signal if addressed by flicking her _left_ ear.

The rest had been played by ear – no pun intended – but it had gone well because her teammates had done well before her, allowing her to fully utilize the element of surprise and finish off the foe.

And speaking of teammates . . . .

After Dawn gave her other Pokémon to the nurse to be healed, Frejya poked her trainer's leg with an ear. "What is it?"

Frejya handed back the pecha berry she'd been holding instead of her usual soothe bell. If Neptune's poisoning had left traces of poison around the field, and if she had been affected by said traces, the pecha berry would have solved it. They never had to use it, but they'd been prepared for the possibility.

"Thanks," Dawn said, taking back the dried berry and digging out the bell from her pocket. "Here's your bell back."

Once the bell was back around her neck, Frejya sighed in contentment. Much better.

* * *

As per tradition, Dawn took them out to eat at somewhere nice. This time, it was a Kalosian-styled café for beating Fantina.

"Ghosts are weird," Sekhmet complained as she bit into her food, liechi berry flavoured. It was expensive, but they were celebrating winning the gym challenge and so Dawn was treating them all. She liked it immensely. "It's like they're there, but not there at the same time."

"Fast, and powerful," Helios said quietly. He and his sister were quiet, only picking at their food. They'd chosen oran flavoured, apparently ashamed at being knocked unconscious without taking down a single foe.

Frejya scooted over to them and silently ate her food with them. "It's not your fault," she mumbled around her mouthful of food.

Sekhmet lost interest. Let the ice queen do as she liked with the psychics. She turned to face Neptune, who was nursing a pecha berry juice as well as some sour-berry food. "Heard you beat your record," she said to him.

The water bird swaggered, puffing up in pride. "I did," he preened. "And by nearly a minute, at that."

From her spot, Themis watched them all, feeling just a bit left out. The trainer was away in the bathroom, and she was left alone. She felt isolated, like she was ignored and looked over by the other Pokémon, but she didn't want to interrupt the conversations going on and insert herself into a group in case the others didn't want her coming in.

She wondered if this was because when she first joined the team, she had gone on a bit of a rampage. Now she had her head on more clearly, but the other Pokémon were still a bit wary of her, remembering how she'd been before.

Themis shuffled her wings and groomed herself. Maybe Dawn would catch a new Pokémon soon and she'd make a friend. Maybe she'd get closer to the others eventually.

She could hope.

* * *

AN: Oh, Themis, you crazy (Gol)bat.

I actually _did_ catch a pair of Ralts when I was playing Platinum for Titanium's sake. They just popped out one after the other, so I just caught them both. I thought it might be fun to make them siblings in the story. Originally, they were named Hestia and Galahad, but I changed it to Helios and Selene a few weeks ago because it fit better.

Updated a week early as a Christmas gift of some sorts. A question for readers - should I have shorter chapters? One of my friends tell me that the word count on this story is the reason why they're iffy on reading it.

Thank you shout out to my long-suffering battle beta, delcatty546!


	13. Lulls of This Life

A.S.107

August 20th

_Got a new Pokémon. _

* * *

On the second day after the gym battle, she was heading out of Hearthome and heading to the eastern route, the one numbered 209. The day before she had talked to Barry on video chat, and both agreed to meet for a battle with each other since they now had three badges each. He was heading down from Solaceon, so she would meet him at the edge of the city where they could battle without worrying too much about bystanders or passersby, but be close enough to a center in case of any emergencies.

"Where is he?" she wondered out loud as she approached the gate between the route and the city. The day was definitely chilly, and she was wearing her League-assigned beanie and thicker scarf. She didn't need a coat on yet, but she had on a jacket. The key to staying warm was layering, not smothering herself in thick clothes. "He's always late to appointments."

A voice _right_ behind her contradicted her. "I am not!"

"Gaah!"

Barry drew back from the punch she threw out of surprise. "Hey," he said and saluted her when she whirled around to face him. "Congratulations on finally beating Fantina!"

"Thanks –" and then the rest of his words caught up to her and she fluffed up in indignation. "Hey, what's that 'finally' supposed to mean? I beat her in one try, for your information."

He shrugged. "Well, you _did_ take about three weeks to actually challenge the gym, you know."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at him. "I was _training_. Because I had three new Pokémon, jerk."

"Well," he grinned. "While you had new Pokémon to train, _I_ was out winning the Poké Ball Tournament in Solaceon. I hope you got stronger, because I challenge you to a battle, four on four, switching is forfeit!"

That was news. She hadn't known Barry was entered in the tournament that had ended yesterday. Her fault for not keeping an eye on the local tournaments, and all the more of a reason to not lose to him. "You're on!"

They released their first chosen Pokémon at the same time, and Dawn bit back a laugh while Barry growled in frustration.

On the field, though, Starling lifted his wings and let out a cry of challenge. Sekhmet was a bit taken aback at the intimidating aura coming off of the now-bigger bird – until she remembered that she, too, had evolved since their last battle against each other. She snarled, and was satisfied to see that the Staravia winced slightly at her ability just as he always had done.

"Let's get started!" Barry snapped his fingers, reminding Dawn of her battle with Fantina. "Starling! Double team!"

Hoping to not let her hit before he could whittle her down, smart. But Dawn wasn't going to let him set up for that. "Quick, spark!"

Sekhmet lunged, but not at the one nearest to her. Going on a hunch, she attacked the one that she was most reluctant to attack based on instinct – the one that was the most intimidating. Her hunch proved to be correct, and the real Starling fell with a cry. From then on, pinned to the ground, he was helpless to a series of sparks and bites.

Barry returned Starling, forfeiting the round. "Good job," he said. "Hey Dawn, say hi to my latest member – Allen!"

Oh, so _that_ was why he had challenged her. So he could show off. Allen was an orange mammal with a yellow ring around his neck – a Buizel.

He must have been dying to show him off, so much so that he had sent him out despite the type advantage. "Spark!"

Sekhmet, charging from her claws to her mane, grinned and then lunged.

"Nuh-uh! Dodge ball volley, Allen!"

Allen waited until Sekhmet was near and then _twisted_ out of the range of outstretched paws, not being hit by the electricity cloaking her body as he shimmied just past them. "Now water gun!"

Sekhmet howled when the blast of cold water hit her. Angry, she shook out her coat and charged up another spark. "Do it, Sekhmet!"

One hit powered by Sekhmet's irritation in the gut later, Allen was out.

Barry winced as he returned the Buizel. "Champ, it's up to you!"

Sekhmet bit and struggled, but the bulky grass type took her out easily. "I forgot how strong she was," Barry commented as Dawn returned Sekhmet. "But it looks like I'm beginning to catch up now."

"Not if I can help it. Themis, time to meet Barry again!"

When he saw her, he nodded in approval. "She evolved!"

"That's right!" and Themis, being even more awesome, doubly resisted Champ's grass attacks as a poison- and flying-type. "Wing attack, Themis!"

This time, she was the one with the speed. Themis darted forwards and hit the Grotle hard with her wings.

The double resistance wasn't enough to keep Barry from trying. "Razor leaf!"

The leaves, while doing barely anything, served to draw blood on the Golbat's face and distract her from the foe. Themis shook it off and went in for the finishing strike, but Champ, ready for it, lunged and met her wing with a bite. The Golbat screamed.

Dawn's hand with the Poké ball flew up. "I'm withdrawing her!" Themis returned to her ball, turning into light that made Champ's jaws lose their grip on her wing. "She gets forfeited. Frejya."

The Buneary regarded Champ with cool eyes before she sprinted and turned to face Champ from his back. Realizing that his back was at risk from the foe, Champ did what Barry had taught him and released a flurry of razor leaves in the general area.

Frejya charged through the counter shield, ignoring the nicks the sharp edges of the leaves gave her. The grass Pokémon had also – sneakily – snuck in some absorb attacks into the fray as well, throwing the health-absorbing bulbs of grassy energy onto the grounds in hopes she would trod on them, but she skimmed over the hidden traps too fast for them to catch her in time. When she reached him, she began pummeling with rock smash and moving with quick attack, vaulting over his back and sliding under him whenever Champ tried to turn and hit her at his optimal angle, facing her.

Even a Grotle couldn't last long under the devilishly quick attacks she was blitzing onto him. Frejya was panting in exhaustion by the time Champ had fainted, but she looked decidedly content as she brushed some of the blood out of her eyes.

Barry regarded her with solemn eyes. "Down to my last Pokémon," he said, releasing a Ponyta. "Camarero, I choose you!"

The fire horse turned out to be quite challenging to face. Frejya, tired from her last battle against a tank, was easily outraced by the sheer speed of the fire Pokémon, and was taken down – literally, with a take down that smashed her into the ground after some skirmishes between the two speedsters. She had landed a few good hits on Camarero though, with her own quick attack and a very lucky rock smash that had been executed right before a stomp attack that knocked her down for the take down straight after.

"Neptune, let's finish this!"

It said a lot for Barry's willpower that he didn't just give up when given the odds that he had. "Camarero!" he yelled. "Buddy, we're not going out without a fight!"

The Ponyta, despite being obviously tired, neighed in fierce agreement. "Now stomp!"

Neptune narrowly avoided having the hoof brought down on his head, though it did clip his shoulder. "Neptune, bubble beam!"

Camarero tried to pull away, but he was too close. Neptune opened his mouth and unleashed a bubble beam right at his underbelly, where the bubbles exploded mercilessly. Hissing, the fire horse leapt backwards after taking the hit, only to stumble thanks to landing on a dipped part of the ground at an odd angle. Neptune took advantage of the situation and shot another bubble beam, effectively putting the Ponyta out of consciousness.

"Yeah Team Dawn!" she cheered.

Barry was still a graceful loser. "You did fine," he said as he recalled Camarero. "So you _did_ get stronger."

There was only one appropriate response to this. "Duh!"

The blond boy laughed.

Because she won, she agreed to treat him to lunch after they got their Pokémon healed up. He and his team ended up eating more than what he had paid for losing, but Dawn didn't tell him that. "Y'know something?" he asked, his mouth filled with the generously large bite of burrito.

"Gross." She wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't speak with your mouth full."

Barry rolled his eyes, but did as she ordered. "You know something?" he repeated his earlier question once his mouth was empty.

"What?"

He sighed, leaning back against the booth and patting his full stomach. "My plan on landing every hit and dodging every attack isn't working like I thought it would."

"If it did," Dawn said. "Then training would be a lot easier than it was, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, you're right."

Despite being full, Barry still perked up when the dessert came along. He dug into the chocolate ice cream sprinkled with crumbled cookies while she ate her cake. "So since your original idea isn't going to work," Dawn said, pausing her cake party to drink some water. "What's your next course of action?"

Barry swallowed his last mouthful of ice cream. "I'm gonna," he paused and burped. "'Scuse me. I'm gonna take it slow and steady. Just like Champ – he gets things done right, and that's what I'm gonna do. Get things done right." He frowned. "Does that make sense?"

"Yup."

"Ah, okay then."

Of course, when they left the diner, his first course of action was to get ready to run. "I thought you were going to take it slow and steady!" she laughed.

"Training, yeah – but there's no time to waste! I'm heading back to Solaceon! See ya!"

Dawn snickered to herself as he ran away. "He never changes."

There was still enough daylight in the day, so they got a move out of Hearthome. She wanted to reach Solaceon soon as well, and they could make it if they hurried.

Partially through Route 209, she ran into a breeder who wanted to give the Pokémon under his care some experience with a real battle. "They're old enough," he said, "and they need to get used to actual battles."

He offered to pay well, and so she took the chance. They could still make it in time to Solaceon, she guessed after a glance at her watch's time-keeping and map functions. She could run, or jog with her Pokémon.

Sekhmet glared at the entire world when she was told to go easy on the Budew, as if she was insulted at the very idea. She bit the grass-type with considerably less force and much sarcasm, but the baby Pokémon still flinched and ran back to the breeder, crying. "Err, good job?" Dawn offered, and winced when Sekhmet huffed.

The next was a Pokémon that had her squealing. "Oh my Mespirit, it's an Eevee!"

The adorable normal-type, recognizing when someone found it cute, batted its eyes at her.

"Alright, Eckhart," the breeder grumbled good-naturedly. "Focus – stop begging passersby for treats. And you're not going to be able to do that for long when you evolve into an Umbreon."

Eckhart pouted, but still put up a good fight against Sekhmet before the breeder intervened. "That's enough for you, I think," he said. "Now, Booker, it's your turn."

The Bonsly didn't stand a chance against Neptune and his bubble beam. "Sorry," she said guiltily when the rock type baby Pokémon fainted after a single hit. Neptune didn't understand what it meant to 'go easy'. Or rather, he did but was too proud to go at anything with less than his full strength just yet. She heard that Empoleon were different – maybe he would change when he evolved and matured more.

The breeder waved it off. "He'll be fine – he's just being a big baby. Could you just not use your Prinplup or Luxio, though?"

She obliged. When he sent out a Pichu, she let Helios out instead. "Let's go for a confusion," she said, hoping it wouldn't be strong enough to knock the baby Pokémon out.

"Sweet kiss, Parker."

The pale yellow mouse was _fast_. Even as Helios's eyes began to glow with psychic energy, the Pichu was already directly in front of the psychic-type, giving him a kiss on his cheek. Stuttering, Helios stepped back and tripped, letting the Pichu skip away with ample time.

Once the baby mouse was a good distance away, the breeder ordered the next move. "Thunder wave."

Helios didn't have synchronize as his ability like his sister did. Instead, he had trace. As such, he became paralyzed, but his opponent didn't. A shame, but . . . .

"Come on, Helios!" she said. "Snap out of it! Confusion!"

Perhaps not the best thing to call out when the Pokémon was confused, but it worked. Helios shook it off and fired a round of psychic energy at the Pichu. The baby mouse Pokémon stumbled as the confusion hit, and then climbed back to his feet.

The breeder nodded, apparently satisfied at the way the battle was going. "Sweet kiss again."

Sweet kiss required contact. Contact meant that he'd have to get closer, which gave Helios more power and likelihood of hitting his target.

Dawn waited until the Pichu had skipped forwards. "Confusion."

But this time it didn't work as she wanted. Helios hurt himself by accident again, this time by channeling the psychic energy to the wrong place. Still, he got back to his feet and hit the foe Pichu with another confusion attack, making the breeder call it quits.

"Great job, everyone," Dawn told them and began to reach into her bag for a paralyze heal or a cheri berry to cure the inflicted status when Helios stumbled, hand going to his chest as he wheezed at a sudden minor seizure brought on by paralysis.

Several things happened at once. Selene shrieked as Helios fell onto his knees. Dawn cried out as her brain suddenly felt like it was submerged in soda pop, all sharp and fizzing in a burning, almost painful way. The guy she had just battled yelled in shock, too, although his pain obviously wasn't the same as hers.

The world looked like it was spinning, but she could see the other Ralts rushing over to her brother's side.

Selene was panicked. There was a powerful tugging at her gut, an instinct to seek for help.

And suddenly they weren't on Route 209 anymore, but falling on their backsides right in front of the Hearthome Pokémon Center.

Or, in the case of Frejya, falling on the head of an unfortunate passerby.

* * *

When Lucas heard about a blue-haired girl who had been abruptly teleported away, he wondered if it was Dawn. She was supposed to be in the area, and it would be likely for her to get tangled up in something weird. "I hope she's okay," he said. He hadn't known that she'd caught a Pokémon capable of teleporting.

Charlotte nodded in agreement before yowling at Miranda, who cackled and released her tail. "Hey, behave, you two."

Arthur rolled his eyes, while Sherlock just blinked.

"Hey kid!"

Lucas looked up. A man, dressed in fishing gear, waved at him. He pointed at himself for confirmation. "Yeah you!"

"Can I help you, sir?" he asked when he was closer.

"Do you like fishing?"

It was quite a random question. Initially, Lucas had been worried that this man was someone like those Galactic Grunts, but now he was more worried about him being a crazy guy. "I've never tried," he said truthfully, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Really," the man looked a bit surprised. "Hmm, well, that's a shame. I'm sorry, but I noticed that you didn't seem to have any water Pokémon on you. Quite odd for a trainer."

"I'm not really a trainer," he admitted. "I'm more of a research assistant."

"A research assistant? How old are you, kid?"

Lucas nearly flushed. "Thirteen."

The fisherman scratched his head. "You one of those genius kids?"

He wished. "No, I just help my father and Professor Rowan with their work. As a field assistant kind of thing."

"Professor Rowan? _The_ Professor Rowan?" The man squinted at him. "You _sure_ you're not a genius?"

Considering just how much his father had to say for the contrary . . . "Positive," he said drily.

The man looked like he was thinking. "Field assistant?" he said at last. "Does that involve _catching_ Pokémon, by any chance?"

"It does," he said. "I'm to gather detailed information about as many species as I can."

"Including water Pokémon," the fisherman guessed.

"Including water Pokémon," Lucas confirmed, wondering just where this man was going with this.

"But if you can't fish, then how are you going to catch the ones living deeper under?" he asked shrewdly.

That . . . was a good point. "I'm not actually sure," he admitted.

The man shrugged. "Here, have this," he said, handing over a rod. It was slightly worn, but still in very good condition. Obviously, it had been well-cared for.

"I can't just take it!" Lucas tried to protest. This was a gift from a stranger, and despite being second hand it was a good-quality rod that probably had a few more years left in use if the next owner took good care of it.

"Sure you can," the fisherman insisted. "See, my son's two years older than you, and he just outgrew this rod. I've been trying to give it to someone who can actually make good use out of it, but no one wants a second-hand item these days, it seems. It's gotta be new or go to the trash heap," he grinned. "Back in my day . . . ."

Lucas wavered. He _did_ need to get information for the Pokédex, as much information as possible, and while fishing was a good way he was reluctant to buy a rod for himself. Getting a second hand fishing pole would solve that problem nicely. "Are you sure, sir?"

"Positive. I'll even teach you how to use it, if you want."

It really was quite the offer being made. But why would a random stranger do this for someone he'd never met before?

The fisherman must have been a secret psychic. "I'm not doing this for some ulterior motive," he said. "You just remind me of my son, that's all. He's gone on his journey – a bit of a late bloomer, but he's decided to go now. I just want him to have a good journey where he doesn't have to be all alone. Might be that the universe is a fair place and the saying 'what goes around comes around' will come true."

Lucas wondered if his own father did this. Not likely, seeing how he actually treated his own son. "Thank you," he said.

"Ah, don't mention it," the fisherman said, shuffling his seat. "Name's Steve."

Lucas sat down next to him on the pier. "My name's Lucas, sir," he said.

"Pleasure's all mine," Steve tipped his red cap. "Now, see, the first thing about fishing's that you have to know how to care for your rod."

* * *

Luckily for Dawn and Frejya, the unfortunate passerby turned out to be Barbara, the Pokémon lover who found the Buneary absolutely charming and preferred to be called 'Bebe'. It helped that Bebe recognized Dawn as both the winner of the contest she had entered a few weeks ago and Johanna Steele's daughter.

"So you've all been through a lot today," she laughed when Dawn somehow spilled out her entire day's tale to her while Helios was being healed of his paralysis by the Hearthome Pokémon Center. "Well, how about tea at my place after your Pokémon's healed?"

When Dawn stepped into Bebe's house – only a short distance from the Pokémon Center – and saw that the blonde's house was even messier than her closet back in Twinleaf had been before, she decided that she really liked the lanky blonde.

While the hostess made room at the kitchen island by unceremoniously throwing piles of paper to the side of the counter, Dawn squeezed into the kitchen booth, promptly joined by all the members of her party that could fit inside a house. Selene and Helios behaved themselves, although Frejya poked at everything around her with her ears with a blank face, as if she was methodically and scientifically examining her surroundings. "Hey, stop that," she told the Buneary.

"It's alright," Bebe laughed as she brought over scones and mugs of tea. Dawn read the messages glazed onto the mugs while waiting for the steaming beverages to cool. The yellow message on the pale green celadon was 'If At First You Don't Suceed, Call It Ver. 1.0.', while the pink china mug said 'I Would Love To Change The World, But They Won't Give Me The Source Code'.

Dawn took a sip from the green one. "Oh, this is good. What blend is it?"

"An old family recipe my mom brought from Johto," she replied. "The recipe's a family secret, but I can give you a traveller's package if you – _Faith_!" she added the last exclamation at the loud sound of something heavy, machine-like and most likely expensive falling over and breaking.

A dart of brown fur dashed out of the small room next to the kitchen where the sound had come from and hopped onto Dawn's lap, followed by a hissing gray Pokémon. The little creature on her lap looked exactly like the one Sekhmet had faced in a mock battle earlier on. An Eevee.

"No!" Bebe yelped when something purple wrapped around the paw of the gray creature. Bebe knew that a ghost-type attack wouldn't hit the normal-type Faith, but it could and _would_ hurt humans. Badly. "Minzy, bad girl!"

The gray creature, a Glameow, stopped in her tracks and glared angrily at the Eevee that was using Dawn as a shield of collateral damage. Ignoring the Glameow it had annoyed, Eevee turned its head up to Dawn and smiled, trying to appeal to the stranger in a successful attempt to get out of trouble.

It worked. "So cute," Dawn said dreamily, melting a bit at the sight of the ball of fluff staring up at her. "Can I pet her? Um, Faith _is_ a she, right?"

Bebe sighed, now that the danger of her guest being impaled by a shadow claw was over. "Go ahead – she likes the attention." Under her breath she muttered something like 'attention whore'.

The Eevee purred loudly when Dawn stroked the fur on her head. "Your fur is very soft," she told the Eevee. "Eevee is a normal-type, right?"

"Yes," Bebe answered, finishing off her cup. "And a rare Pokémon, too. Females, especially, are particularly rare."

"Why?"

"Well . . . ."

And she launched into an explanation on how, because Eevee were so rare, females tended to fetch prices ranging from ten to a hundred times more than their male counterparts. They were genetically predisposed to having less female than male offspring anyhow, which added to their rarity. Collectors absolutely salivated over them, in the hopes of being able to breed more Eevee. They got off track a lot of times, but eventually Bebe snapped back to her senses and answered the original question, which had been forgotten for a while. "Which is why Eevee collectors are often desperate for females," Bebe finished. "My cousin in Johto had a litter of three Eevee kits, all female. He sent me Faith so whenever people ask how I got her, I can tell them the amazing story and brag for him."

"Hear that?" Dawn asked the Eevee still sitting on her lap. Frejya and the Ralts Twins had gotten bored, and wandered off to amuse themselves with Minzy, but Faith had chosen to stay with her. "You're special."

"Eve," Faith purred, partially because she liked being special and partially because Dawn was really good at stroking her back.

Bebe stared at her for a long time. "Do you use the PC system?"

"Huh?" Realizing that it was a question that actually required an answer, she thought for a moment. "I haven't had to use it yet, because I didn't have more than six on my hands at the time. But I think it would be pretty useful when I catch more Pokémon. I mean, I don't want to limit myself or have to release them, and it's convenient, right?

"But," she added to assure Bebe, in case she was one of the people that took severe offense to the idea of keeping Pokémon in PCs indefinitely. "I _do_ plan on taking them out for regular exercises and stretches, and if they find it uncomfortable I'll keep them out or send them to my mom."

The blonde nodded thoughtfully. "So would you say that you like the system?"

"I'd say I do. It's certainly made to be very convenient."

Bebe grinned. "Good, because I'm the Sinnoh PC System executive." At Dawn's blank face, she elaborated. "I'm the technician for the Sinnoh region. I took the original PC system and modified it to fit Sinnoh. I also maintain it and fix any bugs."

"_You're_ the one who runs it?" Before Bebe knew it, Dawn was digging in her bag. "Sign my pokédex!"

"That's a little valuable . . . And what does your Pokédex have anything to do with the PC system?"

"But . . . . Then can you sign my journal instead?"

"I guess?"

But Bebe was warming up to the girl, flattered by the interest. "Anyways, since you seem to use my system and that little fur ball," she jerked a thumb to the Eevee after putting the pen down, "seems to like you, I'll give her to you."

"Really?" she asked, eyes wide at the same time Faith squealed in joy. "But you said that female Eevee were really rare!"

Bebe shrugged. "My cousin in Johto said the same thing, and then dumped the troublemaker on me after making me promise to keep an eye on her. He was all, 'here, cousin, happy birthday even though your birthday's not for another five months, have a pedigree Eevee' and voila, one fur ball who battles computers. He _conveniently_ forgot to warn me about just how much of a troublemaker she was. She's broken two monitors and one hard drive already in the _week_ she's been here and I do believe she won't stop. She's too restless cooped up here at home – she's not meant to be a pet Pokémon."

The blonde paused in her dialogue to twist her neck. A loud crack rang through the messy room, and Dawn's eyes widened – that had been _loud_. "I figure," she continued, "if I can't handle her, then she had better go to a trainer who likes battling and Pokémon. Since Eevee can evolve into many different forms, they're an excellent addition to any party so don't worry about her being a bother."

Dawn shifted the Eevee slightly so Frejya could join her on her lap. "Wow, thank you."

"Just take good care of her," Bebe waved a hand dismissively, and then opened up a file in one of her many computers to print out the papers for Faith. "And if she ever evolves into a Leafeon or a Glaceon," she added as she gave the pedigree chart to Dawn, "bring her back so I can take a picture for Bill."

"Bill?" It was a vaguely familiar name, but also a common one.

Bebe explained. "The inventor of the PC system, and my cousin. He sent me her for some reason he never quite specified. I think it's because he lives in a region where an Eevee can't evolve into those two, though."

That made sense. Glaceon and Leafeon, though . . . interesting choices, ones she'd consider. Eevee had more than just a cute face to go for them – they had so many possibilities.

* * *

Eyes. Black on white, white surrounded by black.

There were thousands, no, millions of them. Watching. Frowning. Staring. Observing. Blinking. Seeing. _Judging_.

"Stop it!" he yelled at them, trying to run –

But they were everywhere. He panted, wanting to cry. Where was the exit? How could he escape from this place?

"Are you alright?"

Karl spun around, and was met with a black-haired woman looking at him in mild concern. She wasn't an Unown – just a fellow human being, that was all.

"Just the Unown," he said. It felt marginally better when there was someone with him who happened to be human.

He paled when one of the Unown landed on her shoulder. She looked to where he was staring, and lifted a hand to pet the Unown.

Just a fellow human being . . . right?

She wasn't an Unown-induced nightmare or illusion, of that he was – _fairly_ – certain. She had red eyes, not white and black, and while she had a black jacket on there was red, gold and gray predominant in her clothes, all bright colours.

He still shuddered when she let the Unown fly away like it was an innocent Swablu off of her finger. "Would you happen to know the way out?" he blurted, wanting to get out. He had come to Solaceon for its ruins, thinking that the Unown wouldn't bother him too much. That had been dead wrong – the Unown terrified him. Some people couldn't handle ruins where the Unown resided, and obviously he was one of them.

The woman nodded, and gave brief directions. "Take the staircase on the right," she pointed. "There's one last staircase after that one, and after the second one, the exit should be there."

"Thanks," he said shakily and hurried to the stairs to follow the woman's directions.

He wanted to get out of there.

Feeling the stare of the eyes again, he sped up his walking pace before he could be taken off track from his way out.

The Unown swirled around the woman, left alone, as the dimly lit cavern got even darker than it had been.

* * *

When she stepped onto Route 209 again the next day, the breeder she had battled recognized her. "I see you're alright," he said with a wave.

"Yup!" and then she released Faith the Eevee. "Got a new member of the party, too."

Frejya had, after Faith joined, graciously given up her spot on the team so that the newbie could get some experience battling. Instead of entering the PC, though, the Buneary had asked to be sent to Dawn's mother through gesturing with her ears.

"Promise me you'll keep mom safe?" Dawn asked, and the Buneary actually warmed up enough to give her a hug and an ear-pat on the back.

"A female Eevee," the breeder looked genuinely impressed. "I don't suppose you're inclined to sell her?" he asked her with hope in his eyes.

Dawn shook her head and didn't mention the pedigree thing. She didn't understand it as well as she would have liked, and frankly it would be a bit of a dick move after refusing to sell.

He sighed. "I figured."

Now that they were going further than the scene of the mass teleport, Dawn found that Route 209 was a really nice place. It reminded her of the countryside. Not Twinleaf-kind of countryside, but something more . . . .

She wasn't sure what the word for it was, but when she saw a bunch of Miltank grazing in a pen, she thought it reminded her of some farmlands, which was pretty much what it was. There were trees, but there were fields cleared out for grazing. She saw a few Mareep and Tauros, watched over by Growlithe and Electrike. A few Ponyta ran, both in and out of pens.

Seeing some people in the streets with Poké balls, loitering like they were bored and waiting for some trainers to come by, she decided to ask them for battles. Helios was now fully healed, and eager to battle. Faith, being the newest to the party, was also keen to show off just how well she could fight.

Selene kept a sharp eye on her brother as he took down a Bonsly with relative ease. She sighed and nodded in happy approval when he began to glow and grow. When the light faded away, he was a Kirlia.

"Kir," Helios said, looking down at his form. He gave a few experimental twirls, and nodded in satisfaction. Dawn put him on rest for the rest of the day after giving him a bottle of water and two snack bars.

Faith, despite being the Pokémon famous for evolving, didn't undergo any changes herself. She certainly did well in the battles themselves, however, tackling through her foes with relative ease.

Reading her moves on the Pokédex, Dawn suggested some strategies for Faith. "Kick a bit more up – that's it," she nodded at the accurate sand-attack. Neptune and Helios, being the tallest ones in the party, were delegated as targets for sand attack practice. They spat out the sand and rubbed their eyes, but took it stoically like proud men. "Thanks, you two."

The sand attack certainly helped in actual battle. Faith managed to irritate the Pokémon, making them more likely to miss, before she picked them off easily with a tackle barrage from the side they least expected it. She was to go to the back of the Pokémon so she could face Dawn, and Dawn would communicate to her through a series of hand signals and gestures just where to hit.

Faith was particularly devious when she hit spots in the legs of Pokémon that made them more likely to lose their balance and fall over, like the back of their knees. She did so by brushing her tail against an area where she wasn't aiming for, so that when the Pokémon braced itself for attack on that side, she leapt forwards in a quick attack to hit the unprepared side before nimbly skipping out of harm's way. "Atta girl," Dawn said to her after she took down a second Bibarel this way. "I think we'll get along fine."

When they reached Solaceon, Dawn lined up in the three-people lineup to the counter. She was about to move ahead when someone slapped her shoulder from behind.

Only one person she knew would do that. "Barry!"

"Took you long enough!" he said.

She rolled her eyes. "What are you still doing here?" she asked him. "Normally you'd just go dashing through towns without gyms."

"I would not," he protested, but then rethought it. "Actually, I would."

"And you know it," Dawn retorted.

"Ah, doesn't matter," Barry waved it off. "Hey, you should come to the Solaceon Ruins with me tomorrow!"

The line moved up, and now she was at the counter. Swiping her trainer's license, she handed over her Pokémon to the nurse and was told that they would be ready for pickup between twenty five to thirty minutes. "Where?"

"Ruins. In this town."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Dawn considered it. "Why?"

Barry shrugged. "It's a cool place," he said. "But I'm gonna have to go with you because it's a pretty confusing place as well, and you'd probably get lost."

He was right about her most likely going to be lost. "Alright," Dawn agreed. The ruins sounded like an interesting place to visit.

* * *

One minute, he and Steve had been casually chatting while fishing, expecting something like a Finneon or a Magikarp, and the next minute the rod had been nearly yanked out of his arms by a tremendous jerk. Lucas would have most likely lost his balance and fallen into the water had Brandon not been nearby and grabbed him. "Thanks," he grunted, trying to pull the rod back. The Bibarel helped as well, using strength to pull back against whatever was on the line.

When the line looked ready to snap, Steve grabbed a rock and hurled it into the spot where the line met the water. The water churned faster and Lucas saw now, just what the problem was. A big problem. A huge problem.

"It's a Gyarados," Steve grunted as the blue wyrm roared and thrashed out onto the surface. "Too much to hope that you happen to have any electric types on hand?"

"None," Lucas gasped. Now even Steve was next to him, pulling on the rod's crank. If Steve hadn't attached it to the fishing rod holder at the dock, then he would have been pulled straight in along with the rod. The iron work held, but he still had to keep reeling to have even a chance. The Gyarados snarled at them and his grip nearly slipped. "Miranda, metronome!" he yelled desperately.

The Clefairy, squeaking in fear, wagged her fingers, and then fired the ball of light that burst at the tips towards the blue dragon. It roared even louder when it was hit, and shook its head.

"Catch it!" Steve yelled in his ear. Lucas let one hand go to reach for a Poké ball, and nearly broke his pinky when the rod slipped further. He ignored the standard Poké balls in his bag, instead reaching for the more expensive and efficient great ball. He pressed the button that would activate it and then threw it as hard as he could at the Gyarados in the water.

Hit on the head, the wyrm was transformed into energy and sucked into the sphere. Steve and Brandon took advantage of the absence to reel in the rod and empty line while the great ball shook a few times as it floated in the suddenly rather empty water.

"That was close," Steve began when the ball burst open. The Gyarados looked even madder now.

Lucas wanted to curse. Poké balls held chemicals that could calm Pokémon enraged from being attacked, a helpful safety measure that kept a great number of Pokémon from retaliating for capture, but the chemicals only worked when the capture was successful. In fact, the capture itself was proof that the Pokémon had calmed down.

Obviously, the Gyarados was still enraged. Before it could kill them all, Lucas grabbed an ultra ball and threw it again. He nearly sobbed in relief when the ultra ball confirmed a successful capture. Arthur, using his psychic powers, grabbed the ball and had it levitated towards the dock to prevent it from floating away in the water. "I thought I was going to die," he admitted, picking up the sphere. "Thanks, Arthur."

"You had 'im," Steve assured him.

"Her," Lucas corrected, reading the information on the Pokédex as was his habit after a successful capture. "It's great that I caught a Gyarados . . . but I don't think I'll be able to keep her. Too much for me to handle. Would you like to keep her?"

"Me?" Steve scratched his chin. "I'll pass – a Whiscash is the perfect Pokémon for me. Gyarados – they're a little strong and a lot vicious."

A little strong was an understatement. Lucas permanently released the large water dragon, making sure to keep an eye out in case she raged at him again. His caution was unneeded, as the chemicals in the ball had proven to do their job perfectly. After snorting at him a bit, the Gyarados swam away without causing more trouble.

Steve clapped him on his shoulder. "I think you're ready to graduate as an apprentice fisherman," he said solemnly.

"Thank, Steve." Lucas scratched the back of his head, feeling slightly awkward at the way Steve seemed . . . well, like a father. More than his own father had ever been. "For everything."

"Ah," Steve said as he waved his hand dismissively, ducking his head in slight embarrassment. "Don't mention it. Pay it forwards and all that jazz, yeah?"

"Yeah." Lucas smiled. "I will."

* * *

The ruins didn't have any particularly outstanding myths attached to them, but they certainly were fun to go through.

Despite that, Dawn still knew that without Barry she would have either suffered miserably or have missed out completely. The entire place was like an underground labyrinth designed to torture people by inducing claustrophobia and confusion. To make matters creepier, the entire place was bare of any dust or grime, even with few visitors frequenting its decorated halls. One treasure hunter claimed that the reason for this was the Unown.

Dawn decided that she did _not_ like the Unown. They were essentially single floating eyes, and they fired mean hidden powers that were always super-effective against her Pokémon. She didn't know how they did it, but they managed to do it every single time. They'd been okay in pictures and books, but in real life? No. Just no.

After nearly jumping out of her skin for the fifth time as yet another one of those rune Pokémon slipped into her scarf behind her back, Dawn decided that she had had enough and sprayed herself all over with repel. Even floating eyeball letters didn't like the spray that repelled Pokémon, and she was left blissfully free of their creepy privacy invasion. Then, when Barry began complaining of the Unown poking around, she laughed at him – to return the favour for when he laughed at her plight earlier on – and then shared her repel with him. It was effective, but they had to constantly spray themselves again in half-hour intervals in order to keep the small psychic types at bay.

It was still worth it. By the end of the trip Dawn was climbing out of the ruins, grinning madly. "Okay, you were right," she admitted. "That was awesome."

"Told ya." Barry stuck his tongue out at her. "Hey, wanna buy me food? I'm hungry."

Dawn made a face at him. "Isn't it normally the guy who treats the girl?"

"Psh." Barry avoided the issue.

She took him to the Café Cabin near Route 210 anyways, on the recommendation of the friendly nurse receptionist at the center.

It turned out that the place was famous only for its fresh Moomoo Milk. Its other foods were mediocre at best, and not really remarkable.

Barry still gulped it all down like he'd been starving. "That's good," he grunted through a full mouth before he washed it down with a swig of milk. A bit of chewed-up pastry fell from his open mouth.

"Chew with your mouth closed," Dawn ordered, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

The blond looked at her in surprise before smiling reproachfully. "Man, it's been such a long time since anyone cared about that," he said wistfully.

Dawn gave him a light kick from under the table. "You sound like an old man," she told him. "And I told you to do that back in Hearthome!"

"Maybe I am," he said. "Ever thought about that? And nuh-uh, you did not."

She couldn't imagine him as an old man, and she certainly had never thought of him as one until now. "No. And I did, so."

"Oh."

She snickered into her water – she didn't like milk. She could eat any dairy product fine – in fact, she loved dairy products. She just didn't like milk. Or eating her cereal with milk, for that matter. The reason why had never been clear to anyone, not even Dawn herself, but maybe that was the reason why she never did get taller.

Barry scraped the last of his spaghetti into his mouth and stuffed the half-eaten meatball after, chewed, and then finally sighed. "Okay, I'm full."

"Good," she said, eyeing the huge platter that had once been filled with noodles and sauce. How he kept himself so thin, she had no idea. Even his constant running shouldn't have burned away _that_ many calories.

"I'm a growing boy," he protested. "Oh yeah, hey Dawn, you know what?"

His interest and focus had shifted again. "What?"

"Gonna," he paused and burped. "'Scuse me. I'm gonna go to Veilstone tomorrow. You wanna come with?"

Dawn considered it. While it would be nice travelling with her friend, she still wanted to hang around Solaceon, train a bit, and enjoy the scenery. Sure, it was a countryside kind of town, but she herself came from a small town. She liked small towns.

Besides, Solaceon had lots of pick-your-own-berry farms. She wanted to get some berries.

"I'll pass," she said. "I've got to train, shop, relax a bit before moving again, you know?"

Barry nodded. "Alright then, but you better get the badge quickly. Stop dawdling, or you'll fall behind, and then what kind of a rival would you be?"

"The slow and steady kind," she replied. "The Turtwig beat the Bunnelby, remember?"

Barry, being Barry, was distracted by something else. "Do you think they have pecha berry pie?" he asked, craning his head to look at the chalkboard listing all the day's specials.

Rolling her eyes, Dawn waved the waitress over and paid their bills. Half, since Barry snapped out of his pecha crave and insisted on paying his share just like he always did in the end.

* * *

The Pokémon were in the large lounging area especially for Pokémon, a few plates of milk and food left for them, courtesy of their trainers and the waitress. Most of them had finished eating, and now lounged around the mats and cushions, exchanging words and gossip.

"Hey, what happened to the Buneary?" the Buizel asked, cleaning his orange paws.

"Got replaced, I bet," said the Staravia, nodding at Faith, who blinked at being addressed. He then turned to Sekhmet, who was lying on her stomach, head resting on a red cushion. "Told ya we had the better trainer, didn't I, kitty-cat?"

Sekhmet's claws crackled dangerously with electricity, and Faith stepped back from the electric wildcat in wariness. "What did you call me?" the Luxio snarled, looking like she wanted nothing more than to claw at the Staravia's eyes with her claws.

"Who has the better trainer?" Neptune demanded at the same time, getting up from the yellow cushion he had claimed as his own upon entering the restaurant's Pokémon section. He wasn't charging up a metal claw or a bubble beam, but he looked just as ready to attack as Sekhmet was.

"Hey, now," Helios raised his hands. "Let's not fight – we'll get our trainers kicked out of this establishment." His sister, hanging onto him from behind, nodded. "And you know they won't like that. You know _she_ won't like that, Neptune," he added, trying to implore to the leader to set a better example.

From what Faith had seen of Helios and Selene, the two psychics were polite and well-mannered, but a bit distant from the rest of the team. Faith knew that before her they had been the newbie of the team, which was why the two with the most influence weren't checking their volatility at his attempt to placate them.

Faith ducked a bit to the back, wiggling so she wouldn't be in the line of fire when the fighting started. She liked battling, but she knew to stay out of senseless brawls.

"She'll understand," Neptune snapped at the psychic. "I'm protecting her honour. She should feel honoured."

"You don't have to," the relaxed Grotle, who was still lying on the ground, cracked his neck a few times, just like Bebe used to do. It wasn't as loud as when Bebe did it, though. "Weren't you just telling me about how Frejya was sent to Dawn's mother to protect her? Sounds pretty noble to me. Settle down, all of you – let's not sweat the small stuff. And you there, Miss Ralts, will you pass that plate of rawst berries?"

The Prinplup glared but stood down, giving Faith an idea of how close the two were. In the short time she'd known Neptune, the Eevee had never once seen him give in to anyone without a fight of some sort.

Except Dawn, that was.

Selene gingerly detached herself from her brother's back to grab the plate of food the Grotle had specified, and brought it over. "Thank you, Miss," he said with a smile for the timid psychic and took a bite before settling back down. "Barry also caught a few Pokémon and sent them to _his_ mother," the Grotle – Champ, if she remembered correctly – said once it was certain that no one would attack each other. "A Chatot and a Murkrow."

Every single one of Barry's other Pokémon shuddered. "The Chatot was a nightmare," the Ponyta muttered, looking like he was having war flashbacks.

"Just wouldn't shut up," the Staravia agreed, shuffling on the perch he had taken and readjusting his wings.

Allen, the Buizel, grumbled under his breath as he reached out to snatch a berry from the shared plate. "It was _your_ fault Barry caught her, womanizer," he muttered, stuffing food into his mouth. "You brought that devil down on us when you decided to flirt with her."

They all laughed. Faith liked them – they were clearly friendly and nice Pokémon – but she also felt a bit like she didn't belong. The two Ralts, the other newbies, were polite, but they kept a bit away from everyone, especially her. She thought it might be because she replaced the Buneary on the team.

There was the smallest sound of wings fluttering, and then Themis, Dawn's Golbat, was roosting next to her. "Hey," she said quietly.

"Hi," Faith said back. Her team members all had rather cool names. Neptune, when she'd asked about it, boasted proudly that his was the name of a powerful ocean deity's. The others had only shrugged, but they had liked their names.

Faith was the only one not named by Dawn on the team. She wondered if that made her an outsider.

Themis nodded at the laughing, talking Pokémon. "It's alright," she said. "I feel a little out of it, as well."

She jumped a bit. Had her thoughts been that transparent?

When she asked, Themis shook her head. "I just know what it looks like," she said wryly.

"Oh," said Faith. And then she tossed her head back. "Well then, we should be friends," she said boldly.

Themis stared. Faith grinned. "What?" she asked innocently. "We're both a bit apart from the others. Us outliers have to stick together, right?"

"Outliers?" Themis asked, rearranging the folding of her wings. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know," Faith admitted, "but the Glameow back at my former owner's house used that word a lot. It sounded cool."

Themis cracked a smile. "Well," she said. "That sounds good to me."

They spent the rest of the day 'making friends with each other' by talking about their past, and their likes and dislikes. Themis was a lot older than Faith, apparently having seen seven winters to her zero, and she had lost track of her brothers and sisters a long time ago.

In return Faith talked about what she remembered of Johto, and her sisters Hope and Charity. "Bill sent me to Sinnoh because he said that I was the one that liked adventuring the most," she said proudly.

The Golbat smiled fondly as their trainers came into the room, having finished their own meals and paid for them.

"Everyone had their fill?" Dawn asked them. "We're leaving now if no one says anything. No? Okay."

* * *

AN: I actually forgot to grab Eevee, but I remembered it after facing the breeder and seeing his Eevee, so I had Selene teleport me back instead of trekking it after Helios got paralyzed in battle. I go to Bebe's house after putting Frejya in the PC, talk to her so I can get the Eevee, planning to name him 'Hermes' or 'Mercury' or something and then evolve him into a Leafeon –

When I see the red girl symbol.

Well, derp. There goes my plans.

For reasons that will be revealed later, Faith the Eevee is nicknamed by someone else. Any guesses as to what she'll evolve into?


	14. The Heart to Fight

A.S.107

August 29th

_Veilstone Gym Battle. Run-in with T.G, helped Lucas. Ran into Looker. _

* * *

After parting with Barry, Dawn scanned Pokémon at the Solaceon Daycare – with permission, of course – for the Pokédex.

"You just come back whenever you want us to raise a Pokémon for you," Charlie, the old man in charge of the daycare said to her when she thanked them. "We'll raise them real good for you."

Just to thank them for letting her see their Pokémon, she left Faith and Helios in their care while she went to pick berries at a pick-your-own-berries farm.

Like most farms that allowed people to pick their own berries, Belle's Farm let her eat as many berries as she wanted while in the fields, but she had to pay for any berries she wanted to take out, and she couldn't take her Pokémon to the field.

Dawn ate razz berries until her mouth turned blood red, and picked a basket's worth of sitrus and half a case of lum berries. Both were more expensive but also more effective than oran and other status healing berries. When she decided that she had enough, she took them to be weighed at the entrance.

"How long will you be open for?" she asked as she took money out of her wallet to pay for the berries. The bushes and trees for the berries hadn't had as many fruit hanging off of their trees, which was why she'd only been able to get half a case of lum berries.

"Maybe a week or two," replied the woman at the register. "You're a travelling trainer, right?" When Dawn nodded, she continued to speak. "Are you interested in getting those berries dried? When they're dried, they're easier to take on the road, and they're easier to eat. We have a drying facility at our farm, so we can dry your berries for you at a cheap price. Much cheaper than buying dried berries in stores."

She did have a good point. Dawn decided to get her berries dried, and followed the woman's directions – and the signs pointing to different parts of the farm – to find the room where fruit was dried. She left hers for the workers to take care of, and was told to return in two days. On her way out, she bought a few packs of berry cookies the store sold as a treat for her Pokémon.

She spent the two days battling bored farmers. Most of the farm Pokémon used for guarding purposes weren't as skilled in battle as her Pokémon, but where they lacked in technicalities they made up for with brute strength and speed, as well as stamina. Some of the Rapidash stallions literally gave her Pokémon a good run for their money, nearly tiring everyone out before Neptune, fed up, spread water sport and bubble beam in a minefield of exploding bubbles. The Rapidash didn't slow down in time to avoid them, and then Neptune simply took advantage of their pause to shoot them down with a following bubble beam.

When the two days were up and everyone was pretty rested, she went to pick up her berries, now not only dried but also sliced and neatly packaged for convenient travelling. There wasn't much left in Solaceon for her, so it was time to move on to her next destination, either Snowpoint up north, or Veilstone in the east.

Snowpoint, given the worsening weather in the rough snow paths up to the northernmost city in Sinnoh, as well as the harsh climate and devastating, near-perpetual snowstorms, had always only been an option around the hottest days of summer, not August, when it was getting colder and colder. She decided to try and catch up to Barry at Veilstone, and so took Route 215 instead of continuing down 210. There was rain, but according to a ruin maniac resting nearby, it was almost always raining. Today's rainfall was just a light drizzle in comparison to the usual load, or so she was told.

The rain still made it impossible to see anything beyond two hundred meters, and it was freezing to the touch.

Dawn wondered if she should have verified his story with other people, because the weather was dampening her mood. "It's cold," Dawn complained. Everyone except Neptune was in their balls because they hadn't felt like getting wet, and right now even her water-type starter looked rather waterlogged. She flexed her fingers to bring some feeling back into their clammy tips. Dawn had dug her red coat out of her bag – the waterproof one – and put it on before starting down the route, but the wind kept blowing the hood off her head and the rain was constantly blown into her face. Water was beginning to drip in through her soaked scarf, and soon it would be warmer to take off the muffler entirely.

It would have been much, much worse if she got lost. Luckily, the route was relatively clear and straightforward. Also, despite the rain, there were still some people running around for her to ask directions. Mostly rangers, but also the occasional crazy trainer that wanted to jog in the rain or practice battles in the rain. For the unfortunate ones that decided to challenge her, Sekhmet – being dragged out of her warm and dry ball – took no mercy on them, and re-enacted a scenario from 'toaster meets bathtub'. Even that sight failed to cheer her up.

By the time she reached Veilstone, a city hewn out of rock that did not look at all welcoming to a cold and wet traveller, she was soaked. She had to wring out the water from her hair, hat and scarf, and decided to just lay the coat out and let it dry in her room, along with her other stuff. Her boots would have to be separately dried and freed from the mud caking it up to her ankles.

"Never again," she swore, even if she knew she wouldn't be able to uphold her words, "will I go through that place again. Never. Ever. Not for a million Poké, not for a million years."

Neptune only sighed in exhaustion and didn't fight it when she returned him.

The showers at the center, predictably, had only the lukewarm water available. Shivering, she put on extra layers of clothes and two pairs of socks before going to sleep at eight o'clock.

* * *

Done with his fishing training, Lucas headed for Veilstone. It was supposed to be a very popular city. Perhaps he could trade some of the Pokémon he had caught for others and get more data that way.

Once he got there, though, he got distracted. The Veilstone Department Store was filled with items, temptations that made him hate his budget and curse his dislike of battling. He made himself stay away from the corners with luxury items not needed on the road, and stocked up on practical things like food, medicine and Poké balls. Then, before he could be tempted into buying things like video games or the latest electronics, he hurried out of the large building.

Outside of the department store, however, there was also the Veilstone Game Corner. While Lucas could resist shopping and overspending, he couldn't quite make himself fully stay away from the game corner.

His father would have had a stroke. Lucas had never played a single video game in his life. Not for lack of want, but because he had never been allowed one. His father had believed that the games would make him an unrealistic, stupid boy with an aversion to doing proper things. He played a few before, but only because some of his friends at school had taken pity on him for his deprived state and let him try on their consoles.

The game corner wasn't his, of course, not in the sense of him owning it. The game machines weren't the same either – they weren't small and compact, they weren't portable and subtle when needed. They were loud, large and clunky, hard and in a large loud room filled with jingling sounds, whooping cries and laughter or groans.

This wasn't just a game console. This was a room, a large room, filled with adults who were addicted to games and smoking, drinking and gambling. A room with carpets that glinted with gold thread woven through red, as if taunting the person walking through the patterns to try their luck and win some gold of their own. A place where no one really won except for those behind the scenes.

He knew very well just what kinds of tactics were used in places like this. Winning was advertised, but only the idea of it. There was no profit in true winning and in the end the point was to blow money here. His father hated gambling, and had on more than one occasion given lectures about the vices of humanity that had to be stayed away from. Lucas knew why gambling, drugs, alcohol and prostitutes were a bad idea.

But the game corner was his in the sense that this was the first time Lucas felt like he was breaking a rule set by his father, and there was a type of exhilaration in doing so, in being 'bad'.

His father probably would have had his hide, had he known.

But he didn't. And Lucas kept coming. He didn't win very much – the only reason he was able to start was because some guy had taken pity on him and taught him how the machines worked. The man had even given him some coins to start with.

He may not have won very much, but he couldn't deny that the feeling of guilt, nerves and impatience directed towards the slot machines were . . . fun. Addicting, almost. The flat 2D screens were like magnets, and he couldn't tear his eyes away from them.

No, it wasn't almost addicting. It _was_ addicting. _He_ was addicted.

Charlotte was worried about him, as were the other members of his Pokémon team. That brought guilt, the bad kind that made his guts twist severely and him doubt himself in the late of the night when he was alone and staring up at the ceiling of the room in the center onto his mind, but it never lasted long enough for him to overcome his obsession. In the moment of the game, when the sounds were ringing and the reels were spinning he was hooked, and he couldn't get away.

Lucas fingered the Pokédex in the pocket of his bag before he withdrew his empty hand and went back to placing bets in the machine. The game corner had a curfew for underage trainers so they would be less likely to gamble and get addicted (in his mind, he imagined his father rolling his eyes and giving his opinion on just why that wasn't as good as a deterrent to stopping minor gambling), and there was only an hour of playing time left.

* * *

After a good night's sleep, Dawn felt a lot better. She felt better than better. She felt . . . enthusiastic.

"I feel like shopping," she decided when she saw the large, welcoming sight of the department store in the distance. In the daylight, when she wasn't in such a miserable mood, Veilstone wasn't bad looking. Hewn out from the sides of rocks, it made for an interesting view.

She dropped off Faith, Themis and Neptune off for a medical checkup with the nurse, something more thorough than a cursory glance in case they had something. "I'll buy you guys something," she assured them when they protested. "Don't worry."

That promise was enough to appease them somewhat.

At the store, Helios and Selene promised to behave if they were left out of their Poké balls. Sekhmet, feeling sensitive to the sterile air conditioning going on in the store, as well as the dust and the myriad of chemical scents that assaulted her senses far too much for comfort, declined to be left out and was returned.

"What's that?" she asked when Helios lifted a TM for her to examine. "False swipe? I don't think we need that."

But when Helios begged her with wide red eyes, hands put together and a soft pulsing of want and plea at the back of her head, she relented. "I don't know what you want this for," she said even as she paid for it. "It's not like you can learn it or anything, unless you evolve into a Gallade." She'd shown them the pictures of their evolution, and recognized Gardevoir and Gallade. She liked Gardevoir – they were very graceful, and also had high special attacks and special defenses.

Helios nodded vigorously and made a chopping motion with his skinny arms, catching her attention.

"Wait, you _want_ to evolve into a Gallade?"

He nodded again.

Dawn considered this for a while. Gallade wasn't a bad Pokémon. Unlike their counterpart, Gallade had higher attack, and were also partially fighting type. Male Kirlia _could_ evolve into Gallade, as long as they had . . . .

Drat, she wasn't sure. "Alright, I'll see what I can do," she promised him, making a mental note to look it up when she got the chance. Maybe she could ask Professor Rowan, since he was supposed to be the expert on Pokémon evolution. Perhaps he could give her advice on the best – and cheapest – way to evolve Helios into a Gallade.

At the jeweler's, she got a decent price for a nugget of gold she had received for payment instead of money for a battle. That covered the TM's price, and then still had some left over. Other than supplies, Poké balls and some effervescent medicine tablets made to be dissolved in liquid and drunk by Pokémon, there wasn't much for her to buy.

She paused at the section of the store selling dolls, and wistfully picked up a Munchlax doll that looked soft and cuddly. When Selene sent a questioning emotional touch to her mind, though, Dawn shook her head and put it back down. "They're cute," she admitted, poking at the paunchy stuffed belly of the doll, "but they're a bit of a waste."

Compared to most trainers, she was pretty well-off, having saved all of her birthday and holiday money – and considering her rich family, that was a rather significant sum of money – for her time as a travelling trainer since she was young, but that didn't mean she could start buying stuff she didn't particularly need. It was better to have some money left off for an emergency. Who knew when money for an extra potion or antidote could end up saving the life of her Pokémon? Who knew what things her Pokémon would need in the future?

And speaking of things her Pokémon needed, she had promised the other three members of her team that she would buy them something. The question was, what?

"Well, how about visiting the basement floor?" the lady in the elevator suggested when she overheard Dawn complaining to Selene. "They have snacks, delicacies from other regions and recently, we started selling professionally made poffins for coordinators."

Not having seen much and still needing some souvenirs, Dawn headed down there and bought a large package of lava cookies, apparently famous in Hoenn. They were okay, and the two psychic types with her seemed to like them well enough when they were offered some for a taste test.

She bought five packages, fully aware of her team's appetite. Grabbing her purchases, she returned to the center and swapped her first half of the team for the other half so they could get their checkups. Once that was done, she took them to her room and let them out of their Poké balls before opening the cookie packages.

In retrospect she should have thought her actions through a bit. Before, treats had been kept in her bag until her Pokémon did something well, as a method of rewarding them for a job well done. Handing them out orderly had been easy when only one or two were out at the same time. When the Pokémon that had been in the first checkups saw the food that was obviously a treat, they lunged for the cookies in her hand, tearing at it to get their share before the others. Neptune was careful to not peck her hand or any other part of her body, but Themis accidentally nicked her left wrist with her fangs and Faith scratched her forearm while scrabbling for the cookies.

"Guys, behave!" Dawn called, wincing and ignoring the pain. "Guys – ow!"

Sekhmet, who didn't appreciate the others jumping and getting more food than her, had jumped to get her share. She landed on Neptune, who let out a squawk of surprise before falling forwards to clip Themis on her wing and land heavily on Dawn's leg. Faith yelped when Sekhmet stomped on her tail in an attempt to balance herself, and accidentally smashed her snout into Dawn's knee.

"_Ow_!" Dawn repeated, and this time her cry was followed by some other cries of pain, like an annoyed screech (Neptune), a whining growl (Faith), a warning hiss (Sekhmet) and an angry chattering (Themis).

And then Helios and Selene, who were supposed to be her good, well-behaving Pokémon, joined in. Not physically, thank Mespirit, but with psychic powers. They began lifting a few cookies so they could get the food without being trampled to death and smashed into Dawn, but Themis snatched a few out of the air for herself.

When she did so, the cookies lost the psychic glow that had been lifting them. She couldn't hold all of them, and so they fell onto the heads of the Pokémon below. Each of them whined, but managed to grab one and tear into them. The Ralts Twins also got their cookies and munched on them in satisfaction.

"Now that we've all established that we _suck_ at eating snacks in an organized manner," Dawn said, wiggling out from the pile of Pokémon on her leg and massaging the numb feeling, "I'll just – oh."

Her wrist was bleeding. Not severely – it hadn't hit a vein or an artery – but there was blood, and the wound was about two inches long.

That would scar.

Dawn thought back to the flurry of activity that had happened on her lap for the sake of cookies and realized that it was Themis who had scratched her. Not on purpose, and the Golbat probably didn't even realize it.

She let her Pokémon enjoy the cookies, and dug as inconspicuously as she could through her bag to grab the emergency kit for human emergencies. Pokémon medicine didn't do the wonders it could do on humans. While the ravenous monsters tore the third package of cookies up, Dawn snuck out so she could wash out the cut and bandage it up properly without her Pokémon looking at it. Themis hadn't meant to do it, and she didn't want to make her feel bad.

The cut wasn't deep. It would probably leave a faint scar, but it wasn't deep. Dawn wiped it up, dabbed some disinfectant on it – ignoring the stinging – and then put a long bandage over it before packing up the kit and returning to her room.

Where she found a mess of opened, scattered empty wrappers and cookie crumbs all over the floor. Dawn sighed and shot a look to her innocent-faced Pokémon, all of whom were decidedly not looking at the mess. At the ceiling, at their own flippers or fur, but not at the mess.

Dawn pursed her lips. "Next time," she said, hands on her hips and feeling like a kindergarten teacher scolding her unruly students, or a mom lecturing her messy kids. "We will distribute snacks in an orderly, mannered manner. Not like a repeat of this time. If we can't do that, then we won't have more snacks or treats like this. Am I clear?"

Her Pokémon all nodded. She returned them all except Helios and Selene, who were best for cleanup duty. "I know you guys were probably the ones who caused the least mess," she said as they picked up wrappers and tossed them into the rubbish bin that she put in the center of the room to make cleanup easier. "But think of it as training. Can you focus on the crumbs and lift them into the garbage bin?"

They tried, they really did, but that apparently took a lot of focus. The best they could do was lift them half a foot into the air before dropping them, unable to carry them fully to the bin. Dawn compromised and let them drop the crumbs into her outstretched hands. She would then empty her hands into the trash bin. It was still a lot easier than her trying to pick up the crumbs from the floor by herself.

"Thanks, you guys," she said, and returned them to their balls so they could get rest. Tomorrow, they'd get some training done.

* * *

Maylene loved her father. After her mother's death – an accident involving a rabid Mightyena that had escaped an underground Pokémon mill with a fierce, grudging hatred towards humans – he had singlehandedly raised her, and fully supported her no matter what path she decided to take. He had stood by her when she decided to shed pink fluffy dresses for sweats and dolls for martial arts, despite being a bow-legged man with a deathly allergy to any form of physical exercise. He had done everything he could and then some to support and help her when she was offered a position as gym leader at a young age so that she could proudly represent the city of Veilstone.

But he also had a deadly flaw – he was addicted to gambling.

And Maylene hated gambling.

"Why can't he see that it's an addiction?" she growled as she beat the tar out of the hanging sandbag after their latest argument over his frequent visits to the game corner placed insultingly close to her gym. She had chastised him about it, but he had, like he always did, only laughed and waved it away like it was no big deal.

Arya only watched her with calm red eyes. Looking at her Lucario, Maylene felt her eyes soften as a calming aura washed over her. She knew she wasn't imagining it – Arya liked to calm her down to prevent her from doing something rash and regrettable.

"You're right," she said to her Lucario. "I should calm down. I think that there's a few trainers coming in for a battle later – lower tiers, all of them, unless more come."

Arya made a face. Her Lucario hated the energy limiters that had to be placed on her for her to fight the weaker challengers while giving them a chance to beat her.

"I know, but bear it please?"

She made some grumbling sounds, but relented. Maylene smiled. As a young Gym Leader who had only recently acquired the position, she didn't have a large pool of her Pokémon's offspring or gym-owned Pokémon to battle challengers with. As a result, the members of her strongest team often had to have devices that restrained their power and stamina on their Poké balls to fill her team. The Pokémon fought, free as ever, but their strength was sapped so it was easy for weaker foe to take them down.

None of her Pokémon who were on that duty liked it, Arya least of them all, but they bore it for her, even her picky Lucario. Maylene appreciated that because she liked to use Arya in gym battles unless the Lucario was too tired for the day. Arya was the one Pokémon she always used for gym battles, even for the first badge trainers. Maylene felt that she couldn't properly know a trainer until she had battled them with Arya.

The Lucario wasn't her first Pokémon – that honour belonged to Gene, her Machamp – but she was the team leader, with her cool head, careful strategies and devotion. She kept Maylene's fighting types in line like a strict drill sergeant, and didn't let them slack off. She was the bar that everyone strived to reach, like a role model or an older sister. Even Gene sometimes needed Arya's prodding to keep on top of things.

And it wasn't just her team. She was just as important for Maylene as she was for her other Pokémon. Maylene needed her there to keep her from messing up in gym battles, or keeping her focused and on track. Her presence was a comfort. First badge trainers had a hard time fighting her due to all the resistances she had as a steel type, but that was their tough luck.

"Let's stretch while the challenger gets here."

* * *

"Lucas?"

He flinched when a girl called his name. He was just about to make his way to the game corner again, and being recognized . . .

He turned around slowly and found Dawn. "Oh, hey. Didn't know you'd be here."

The blue-haired girl shrugged. "I'm here to challenge the gym," she said, pointing to the building a little way off with the league's insignia. It was a short, one minute or so walk away from the game corner.

Of course she'd be here to earn another badge. "Working hard, I see," he said, trying to keep calm.

"I try," she said modestly. "You?"

Working hard? He tried, but so far he had failed absolutely miserably in stopping himself from going to the game corner every day ever since he got to this city.

"I guess I could do better," he forced out a laugh. "If I weren't so busy, I think I'd work a little harder." If he wasn't so busy with gaming machines, that was.

"Busy?" Dawn perked up. Instead of excusing herself and heading to the gym, she took some interest. "Are you working on a project?"

Lucas didn't really want to lie. He was a bad liar. He didn't have much practice lying in the first place, and he was really, really bad at it. "N-no," he stuttered, embarrassed. "I've just been spending a lot of time in the game corner."

There, the truth was out.

Dawn, however, didn't seem to care as much. "Okay," she said.

Maybe she might have had some more to add to that, or expanded on why she was 'okay' with him gambling if they hadn't been interrupted, just that moment.

_"The ring is my roiling sea, the towering waves shaped me_," a man – a huge, bulky, muscled mass of a man with no shirt in a mask walked by them, trailed by a bunch of fans as he sang out loud like it was the most natural thing to do in the world. He stopped his singing. "If that wasn't _my_ song, I'd say that it fit that girl perfectly. Anyone here beat the gym leader, or planning to challenge her?"

"I do," Dawn called, raising her hand. "I'm challenging the gym in a few minutes."

He nodded at her. "Don't underestimate her," he warned. "Maylene is young, but she is truly a genius, with the determination to back it up. The strength she shows in a simple spar alone is absolutely incredible."

"I'll keep that in mind," Dawn promised.

"You do that," he said, before returning to singing. _"I'm the tidal wave of power to wash you away!"_

_"Put out the fire, Crasher Wake! Run from electricity, Crasher Wake!" _his fanclub sang along.

_"Ah, ah, ahhh, the ring is my sea,"_ he belted out as he walked away.

Dawn stared at his retreating back thoughtfully. "A singing pro-wrestler?" she guessed at last.

"I'm pretty sure he's a gym leader," Lucas answered.

"In Pastoria city," Dawn told him, surprising him with her knowledge. He had thought that she didn't know who that man had been. "I was just wondering what his night job would be," she elaborated.

"What?"

Dawn shrugged. "You know how some people are all prim and proper during the day, but total rebels at night when they go drinking and clubbing? I was wondering what his night persona would have been."

"I don't think he'd be a singing pro-wrestler," Lucas said, thinking that his own 'night job' could be hanging out at the game corner. "That's what he looks like right now."

"Hmm," Dawn scratched her knee. "You're right. Never mind, then. Anyways, I've got to go, so good luck!"

She waved, and he waved back to her. When she had gone into the gym, he slumped his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling tired and disappointed in himself. He had to get his act together.

But surely a few more games wouldn't hurt . . . ?

Just a few, he promised himself as he began walking towards the game corner.

* * *

This time Dawn decided to challenge the gym only a day after training in the city. No one had evolved recently, they had already worked out techniques to be used back in Solaceon, and the day spent training in Veilstone was review, made easier since as the fourth gym in the challenge, Dawn was now restricted to using the same number of Pokémon as the gym leader. Instead of training everyone, she only had to train a few of them, which took less time than training the entire team. Everyone knew everything – they were all ready.

Veilstone had been a dark type gym before the events of 11/9, run by Leader Dante Allegro, who also happened to be one of the most famous actors in Sinnoh at the time. He had resigned in grief after his fiancée – Drina Cho of the Elite Four – had been killed. A few months later he'd been found dead in his apartment, drug overdose being the cause of death.

Now, years later, having switched leaders a few times in between, the gym was led by Leader Maylene Östergren, who specialized in fighting types. She wasn't sure what it would have looked like all those years ago when the handsome dark type specialist was in, but right now, it was a messy dojo filled with tires, crates and hanging sandbags.

"We're renovating," the receptionist said apologetically, gesturing half-heartedly at the stacks of dusty tires and boxes. It looked more like a junkyard where a bunch of five year olds had gone and made their dream fortress by surrounding it with a maze than a gym being renovated.

"Should I come back?" Dawn asked.

He shook his head and took her license to register her for battle. "Nah, they actually like it this way. They say it makes a nice maze, and that it's fun to surprise the challengers." He muttered something that sounded like 'fire hazard' under his breath. "You're welcome to use any number of Pokémon against the gym trainers, but against the gym leader, you may only use three Pokémon, to match hers. Two healing items may be used by both sides. Good luck."

'They' turned out to be four muscular men with black belts who called themselves the 'Karate Quads', working as the gym's trainers. Dawn liked them; they shouted out their own catch words before they charged into battle.

Helios, pitted against a Croagunk, threw up magical leaves into the air, letting the grass energy form shape and fly towards the poison and fighting type, who only laughed when the green energy began to hiss against his poisonous skin.

Dawn, remembering all the things she'd planned for her battle against Fantina, concluded that the magical leaves were melting against the Croagunk's skin. When they dissolved, they let off a bit of steam. Not nearly cloaking or fast enough to serve as something to block the foe Pokémon's sight.

So it would come down to good old fashioned type advantage. Dawn and Helios gave up on elaborate strategies that would hopefully confuse their opponents and take them by surprise, and went with spamming confusion over and over again.

It may have been a cheap tactic, but it worked. The Croagunk, having grown confused under the psychic energy's barrage raining around it, screeched when it kicked the force field around the small arena they were using for the battle. Helios took advantage of his foe's confusion, and while the Croagunk was slightly stunned and unable to move vital areas out of the psychic's reach, hit it in the head with one last confusion. The frog went down like a rock when the bolt of psychic power struck it in the head.

Selene, who had already decided that the path of competitive battling wasn't something she wasn't interested in, waved and cheered her brother on from the sidelines.

Dawn, next to her, stood ready with a bottle of water and medicine at the ready in case of an emergency as Helios faced his next opponent, a beefy Machoke who cracked its knuckles confidently at the sight of a seemingly frail and girly looking Pokémon, only to be swept off its feet and attacked with wave after wave of confusing psychic energy.

"Great job," she told him, offering some water when he stepped off the ring after winning. Helios and Themis were barrelling through the four black belts like a bowling ball through pins. Themis, especially, had a double resistance to fighting types and was using that along with her speed to her fullest advantage, just like Dawn was. Her wing attack, as well as her zigzagging style of flight, kept her well out of danger but every bit the threat she was.

When the last Pokémon in the gym trainer challenge was revealed to be a Heracross, Themis actually laughed.

After the last Quad, Dawn found the ring where Maylene was stretching her legs. "Hey, challenger," she waved. "Ready for your battle?"

"Yup!"

Nodding, Maylene leapt down from the ring. Dawn was taken aback when she saw that Maylene, despite being a gym leader, was only five inches taller than her. "How old are you?" she blurted.

The pink haired leader smiled a bit warily, like she had heard the question a great number of times before. "Just turned eighteen two weeks ago," she said.

Dawn felt a bit like Barry – tactless and loud-mouthed. She of all people should have known the touchiness of being shorter than average. "Oh, well, happy late birthday."

Maylene's wary smile cracked into a more genuine one at that. "Thanks," she said. "Alright then, Dawn Steele? Let's see if you deserve the Cobble Badge!"

They walked over to a larger arena where rocks and pools of water were littered around on hardened clay. Since it was more of a natural-based field, Dawn assumed that Maylene would use the surroundings in her attacks.

Dawn sent Themis out. "Confuse ray, quick!"

But Maylene's chosen Pokémon, a Meditite, was already springing forwards with a loud clap.

Had Dawn chosen another Pokémon, they would have flinched at the fake out and lost their momentum, allowing their opponent to get the upper hand.

Themis didn't. Her ability, inner focus, didn't let the fake out take her off guard. She laughed, instead, and simply shone the light of confuse ray in the Meditite's face.

The fake out actually made it easier for Themis to confuse the Meditite – the psychic fighter was right in her face, at the perfect angle to have the pulsing light shone in its eyes.

Before the dual type Pokémon could even try to pull off a super-effective psychic attack against its foe, the lights had it confused. It tried to get up and reach for something it was hallucinating, only to trip over its still half-crossed legs as Themis shuffled forwards in the air, looking for undefended areas to attack. "Wing attack, while it's down!"

"Maya, dodge!" Maylene called.

The Meditite tried, but Themis landed a critical hit right behind her head. She let out a yelp, and then, still confused, dove headfirst at a nearby rock. Both Dawn and Maylene winced as the Meditite slumped, looking very dazed.

Themis knew to take advantage of this, so she jumped forwards midair to execute an astonish attack perfectly, and while the Meditite flinched, hacked away with wing attacks at her foe's face until it was slapped by leathery wings into unconsciousness. She took a confusion attack or two in the process, but Meditite didn't have particularly strong special attack, so Themis bore it easily.

"Good job, Maya," Maylene recalled her Pokémon, before sending out a Machoke. "Apache! Let's do this! Focus energy!"

Fighting types often learned rock types to have coverage against flying types. They had to cripple the fighter before it could hurt Themis – or worse, ground her, especially before the fighting type managed to focus its energy and raise the chance of hitting vital spots on Themis. "Confuse him!"

Maylene sighed with the wariness of someone who had said the same thing far too many times. "Apache's a _girl_," she ground out.

By then, the flashing light had already led the Machoke into confusion. "Sorry, didn't know," she apologized as Themis went in with a wing attack, chuckling at how easy it was for her as the fighters had to deal with both her and their own strengths.

Maylene shrugged. "Rock tomb! She gets it a lot," she said as the Machoke grabbed a boulder and crushed it in her hands to pieces before throwing it. Themis screeched, and barely managed to avoid the rocks that would have buried her under.

More serious now, she zigzagged forwards, flying behind the Machoke before slashing downwards with her wings. The fighting type rolled forwards in a hasty somersault, mitigating the worst of the blow while getting out of range from her leathery wings. The foe Machoke then ducked behind the rock she had rolled behind just as Themis dropped down.

"Strength," Maylene called.

"Dodge! Yeah!" she jumped when the strike missed Themis by a hair's width. "Wing attack!" Dawn adjusted her scarf when it became a bit tangled during her jumping. "Well, her name's pretty."

Apache, surprisingly, fell quickly as well. Maylene recalled her with some reassuring words, and then took out the last Poké ball, grinning. That surprised Dawn. She was down to her last Pokémon, so why . . . ?

"Arya, lend me your strength!"

A bipedal creature with a canine-like face took a stance on the battlefield. Casually, without even looking at the foe it was faced with, it cracked its knuckles and flicked a bit of dust off the spikes on the back of its paw. It brushed down a tuft of the cream coloured fur on its torso that stuck out, and only once it deemed itself ready did it look to face its opponents.

A Lucario gazed at Dawn and Themis with cool red eyes, calm and collected, very well aware of just the kind of threat it could be in battle. Dawn smiled a bit. Lucario. Her mom didn't have one, but she knew about them pretty well. Steel and fighting type; high attack, both special and physical; rather fast. Like their iron will and the stubbornness natural to steel types, Lucario couldn't be flinched out for hesitation, or if they did, became even faster after flinching.

That just meant that they had to keep her from attacking them while they hit her with a barrage of attacks that wouldn't flinch the Lucario out. "Confuse ray!"

"Force palm."

Dawn knew Lucario were fast, but the Lucario was _fast_. Even as Themis charged up the flashing lights, the aura Pokémon was there, smashing a forceful palm into her left wing. Themis squeaked as she was thrown backwards, and the Lucario straightened, even when her eyes were slightly clouded with confusion. "Don't let them snap out of it!" Dawn called. "Wing attack!"

Themis charged, recognizing that this was a foe of a different caliber than the other two she'd faced so far and understanding that she had to take her out before the foe took her out. "Counter with a metal claw!"

The Lucario didn't let the confusion slow her actions. The spikes on the back of her paws glowing sharply, Arya slashed. Themis screeched as the glowing spikes tore deep and strong, and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Good job," Dawn told her after she recalled her.

"I hope you weren't planning for an easy victory," Maylene called from across the arena. "Maya and Apache are new – they're gym Pokémon, not from my main team, but Arya is. Just because she's got on limiters that sap her energy to a level near the fourth gym badge level doesn't mean that her skills have decreased in any possible way. Coincidentally," she added with a grin, "she's a Steele Lucario."

"Yeah," she muttered under her breath. It looked like a popular strategy with the gym leaders. Roark, Gardenia, Fantina and now Maylene, all saving their strongest ones for last. She saw the logic in it, but it still felt a bit sneaky.

And the fact that the Lucario was Steele-bred meant that she couldn't lose this. "Well, you're not the only one with an ace. Neptune!"

Dawn's starter was on the field, glaring at aura Pokémon. "Bubble beam!"

Maylene didn't even have to tell Arya to dodge. The Lucario moved, ducking and weaving over the stream of bubbles, occasionally even somersaulting – like this was an action movie – to get out of the bubbles. When Neptune had to stop the bubbles to take a breath, Arya stopped on top of a boulder and stood straight. Dawn saw with dismay that the confused light in the Lucario's eyes were gone. The sacrifice Themis had made to cripple the Lucario had been made in vain – she was no longer confused. "Force palm!"

"Bubble beam!"

Neptune snarled a bit at the tricky foe he was facing – why couldn't that thing just stay still – and unleashed another beam of bubbles. This was a focused counter-shield of a sort, trying to ward off the foe or discourage them from coming their way by shooting out a ranged attack.

He wished he had something stronger than bubbles to work with. Maylene's Lucario ducked around the bubbles to get closer to Neptune, ignoring the few bubbles that actually made contact. No matter how hard he tried, the Lucario was just too agile to actually get hit by enough of his bubbles. Most of them ended up popping in the air and making the field heavier with moisture.

While that was good, he was indignant at the fact that he couldn't seem to land a hit on the Lucario. He was even more indignant at the Lucario creeping closer and closer to him despite his best efforts.

He began to inch away as well, making the tips of his flippers into a metal claw in case he had to parry some of her attacks. Soon, he'd have to stop the stream of bubbles to take a breath, and he knew that the Lucario would attack then. But he would be waiting for her, and he would block off any attacks she tried with metal claw and then use bubble beam, point blank. A good plan, he thought.

The Lucario didn't wait for his expectations to take fruit. Abruptly, despite the bubbles, she threw herself forwards and towards him. Surprised, he lifted his flippers to ward her off, but she used her left paw to sweep them away from her while delivering a lashing focus palm with her right, straight into his torso's center.

At the unexpected hit, he choked and was forced to cut off his bubbles as what little air left in his lungs were pushed out. He slumped on her paw, gasping, but scrambled up as soon as he could, not wanting to leave his back in face of danger. He spat a stream of bubbles that were far weaker than his usual bubble beam, but did enough to make the Lucario leap back slightly in order to avoid being hit.

He crowed, feeling triumphant – she hadn't taken him out – before he wheezed, muscles seizing up and flippers jerking in an uncontrolled manner.

"He's paralyzed," Dawn said aloud, frowning.

"Drain punch," Maylene commanded.

Neptune, paralyzed, took the absorbing blows rained down on him. He tried to parry them off with a peck or a metal claw, but half the time he ended up being too slow. That, and even blocking didn't do anything to stop the Lucario from absorbing some of his energy. "Stop!" she yelled to the ref. "Potion break," she added to explain that she wasn't throwing in the towel just yet.

Neptune limped over to her in order to get the medicine faster, but also to get some room between the Lucario and himself. "Which one do you need more?" she whispered. "The paralysis gone, or a potion?"

Her starter gestured at his battered state, and then made a rubbing motion. "Potion," she confirmed, and sprayed him over with a super potion. "Stop when it gets too much."

Neptune, being Neptune, rolled his eyes. Too much, she said. Please. Sometimes, Dawn needed to have a little more faith in him.

Once out on the field, he gave the Lucario a run for her money, covering the field with bubble beam from his spot nearer to Dawn's side of the arena. Arya actually slipped once, miscalculating the slipperiness of the floor after it had multiple bubbles burst on its surface as she wove around Neptune throwing punches. The constant drain punches, however, kept her a lot healthier than she should have been, and to make matters worse Neptune's paralysis kept acting up, freezing him in places where he needed to move to deflect blows or dodge them.

"Neptune," Dawn said when she saw him glow blue, pushed into torrent territory, "Think you can take it, buddy?"

That was more like it. Dawn trusting him made him feel like he could take on anything, and prove to the world just who he was. He cawed out a challenge, as if to boast that he could take on the world even in this state. She bit back a smile – he never gave up.

Maylene, hearing the words 'take it', assumed Dawn needed him to take a few hits. Presumably so that Arya would be unable to continue using drain punch. The technique wore out fast, and couldn't be used too many times in succession.

But the girl was overestimating her Prinplup's ability to take a few more hits, and Arya's ability to dish them out. "Go with metal claw," she instructed. Metal claw didn't take up much energy to use, and could be thrown out in rapid succession. The water type would resist it, but it was only hanging on by a slight bit. A metal claw would be enough.

Arya sped forwards.

Dawn, though, hadn't meant that at all by the words 'take it'. She'd simply been asking if Neptune wanted to continue on, and Maylene had read into that too much.

"Bubble beam!"

Arya was on a direct path towards Neptune – there was no dodging the sudden burst of bubbles. Shewas hit by the powered-up stream of bubbles that glowed with a blue light – and this time, she was thrown back. She soon got back to her feet, though, and wove through Neptune's final manoeuvre to finish Neptune off with a metal claw.

He tried to laugh, tried to keep standing, but the metal claw hurt, and he was tired. Neptune spat one last bubble out and watched it burst on the Lucario's chest spike before he let his eyes close and knees buckle.

Dawn tried to not grimace as she returned him. A metal claw. _That_ was how tired he had been, to be finished by a not-very effective move.

But that had been a part of their strategy. Pushed to a corner, his ability – torrent – had activated, powering up his last bubble beam. And it had hit Arya hard, judging from the way she was huffing.

Time to finish things up.

"Sekhmet!"

The odds were in Dawn's favour, even with Neptune and Themis unconscious. One more Pokémon, and she had the badge. Sehkmet hadn't been seen battling the gym trainers, making her Dawn's last ace. Maylene would have, after seeing how Dawn tore through the four gym trainers, expected her to use Helios.

And Dawn was throwing that expectation out the window and turning the table by blindsiding Maylene. She was going to – legally – sneak attack her way to the Cobble Badge.

Neither Maylene nor Arya planned to give it to her without putting up a big fight, though. This was their final stand. Even in a gym battle, they were going to go down fighting. "Bone rush!"

Arya charged with a bone created out of the essence of earth. That was something she hadn't expected, but at least it was a bone rush, and not something like earthquake. "Charge!"

Sekhmet was glowing when she was hit with the bone. She hissed in pain, and shook her entire body to throw the Lucario off.

"Force palm," Maylene didn't look like she was despairing. Rather, she looked like she was having fun.

Dawn's Luxio tried to weave out of the way of all those lashing paws, but she only managed to dodge three before Arya landed a hit on her back. The blow sent a wave of impact throughout her body and paralyzed Sekhmet, who didn't like it one bit. _She_ was the electric type here. _She_ was supposed to be the one going around paralyzing others.

She charged forwards with Dawn's cry of "Spark!"

Fur crackling with electricity, she let Arya be hit with the brunt force of her charge. The Lucario grunted when Sekhmet sprang back, but stood even as she winced and felt paralysis spread. Her short fur was still wet from all the moisture in the air, courtesy of Neptune. The electricity conducted well thanks to all the dampness, and the Lucario felt it burn.

"Spark again!"

Arya made to stop the Luxio's charge, but she was just too tired. The next blow knocked her unconscious, and she fell.

Maylene recalled her. "Thanks so much," she said to her partner who suffered and held back a lot just to be with her in every battle. "Congratulations! You've won yourself the Cobble Badge!"

Dawn took the offered badge with a grin. "Yes!"

Handing over a TM – drain punch – the pink-haired girl gave a small smile. "Yes, well, I'd recommend that you work on your strategy in battle. I saw three distinct ones, but they were pretty basic, and the majority of your battle relied on hammering through with power."

The smile disappeared from Dawn's face. Maylene, mistaking it for anger, quickly stiffened. "Just advice," she said cautiously.

Dawn didn't hear that part. "And I thought we had it covered this time," she said, feeling slightly mournful.

"You do," Maylene tried to assure her when she realized that Dawn's reaction was more of depression than anger. "It's just, well, you could still improve. You seemed a little rigid, I guess, and it got predictable."

"Okay."

"Hey," the gym leader tried to be more encouraging, wondering if she had been too mean. The girl had, after all, pulled off some good moves during the battle, far better than a good portion of some challenges she got. "You won, so what's with the sad face? Cheer up – you'll get better with practice! That's what it's all about! I mean, I was expecting you to throw out your Kirlia, and when you sent your Luxio I was a bit taken off guard. That gave you some momentum, didn't it? You're obviously getting better."

That did make her feel better. "Yeah," Dawn said. "Yeah, we'll work on it! And we'll get better!"

"That's more like it," Maylene said, a bit relieved that she hadn't made anyone depressed.

Dawn took the cleared path to the door that went around the side of the gym, waving as she did so.

* * *

Surely, somewhere in the universe, there was some deity that would be willing to make a deal with him.

That was what Lucas was doing at the moment as he tried very hard not to cry. Praying and making deals with some god out there. It went something like this.

_Dear (insert deity here). I swear that I'll never go to the game corner again, so please magically return my Pokédex to me. If my promises seem doubtful, then please take a good long look at my past record. But please don't ask for references – Professor Rowan and my dad would kill me if they knew why you were asking. Sincerely, Lucas._

He had quite the reason to hate Team Galactic right now. While in the Game Corner, they had cornered him against a row of machines and frisked him for valuables. His Pokémon were out enjoying themselves with a massage lady who had found all of them, even Sherlock, absolutely charming and so were saved from being stolen, but they had taken his Pokédex. All of his coins too, since he had no cash, just his trainer's card on him.

Lucas no longer cared about the coins. Even if he had spent quite the effort gathering them, the Pokédex was the priority, being a very valuable piece of equipment and a priceless thing to him. He'd spent so much time and effort on filling its pages, making careful notes on the many Pokémon he'd caught and the fewer that he'd kept. The professor had _entrusted_ it to him because he believed in him. _Him_, Lucas Yew, had been trusted with it, had been given an opportunity to do his job and show the world what he was capable.

More than anything, Lucas couldn't bear letting the professor down.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. "What's up?" Dawn said cheerfully. She must have won the gym challenge.

He couldn't exactly ask for help from the professor or his father – that would defeat the purpose of him trying to not let them down – and the police would most likely have to report it to them, as he was a minor, but maybe . . . .

It was a crazy, dangerous idea, but Lucas was desperate. "Can you help me with something that has to be kept secret?"

Dawn thought for a second. "Depends on what you need help with, but probably. What's wrong?"

He gave her a quick summary – it went something like "Team Galactic stole my Pokédex and they won't give it back but I can't tell people so help me get it back _please_" – and waited for her response.

"I'm guessing this is time sensitive?" she asked, face neutral.

Lucas nodded unhappily. The moment the grunts had let him go, he had retrieved Arthur and Brandon and sent them after the two grunts responsible to keep an eye on them. If they were caught . . . .

That, and every second the Pokédex was out of his hands and in the hands of Team Galactic meant that there was another second added to the possibility of the machine being wrecked.

Dawn chewed on her lip. "Let me just drop some of my team off at the center," she said at last.

Once in the center, Neptune and Themis were handed over to be healed, but Sekhmet refused. She insisted on going with Dawn. The Luxio was rather irritated when the girl tried to go with the weaker and younger members of the team. Really, it wasn't like she was some fragile pansy or something. She could handle it.

Dawn gave in, in the end, and sprayed her with a paralyze heal and super potion. "But I'm keeping an eye on you," she warned as she recalled her.

Then she and Lucas were near the borders of the city, glaring down two teal-haired people dressed like spacemen. When the Galactic grunts heard footsteps, they looked up. "Give it back," Lucas growled at the grunts.

Dawn didn't know how he knew they were the ones who had taken it, seeing as how they all looked the exact same, but they obviously were the guilty ones. "Nope," one said. "We're keeping this nifty thing. Seems rather fun."

"Wonder if I can download a game onto it?" the other said, examining the machine. She saw Lucas suppress a cringe when his Pokédex was manhandled. On one hand, it was still functional. On the other hand, it might not for long.

"These guys," she muttered.

"They really do seem to have a thing for the professor's research," he agreed.

That hadn't been what she was about to say, but Dawn decided to go with it anyways. "With picking on little kids, too," she said. Then she grinned, and said her next words loud enough for anyone in the vicinity to hear clearly. "Seems like that's because they can't beat anyone _except_ younger people."

The grunts scowled. "Watch it, brats."

"Ah, see?" she turned to Lucas, deliberately baiting him just like Professor Rowan had done in Jubilife but making sure she could see him from the corner of her eye. She didn't want to be jumped by angry guys wishing to wring her neck to shut her up. "Right there. He's picking on us because he doesn't have the power to pick on someone his size. Bet he's been like that since he was young – too weak to do anything except in groups."

Lucas made a slight face, wondering if he was one of those people. He hadn't had the courage to come after these two by himself, and had wrangled Dawn into the matter as well.

Dawn noticed, but before she could say anything to him, the men at the other end of the ally reacted.

"Shut up!" the second guy released a Zubat. Not wanting to use Sekhmet just yet, Dawn sent out Faith, who assessed the situation and immediately sprung forwards with a quick attack towards the blind bat. Lucas quickly followed with a Clefairy that engaged with the other Zubat released by the grunt's partner before it could gang up on Faith. "Miranda," Lucas said when the Clefairy had thrown herself back to avoid being hit by the Zubat's attack. "Gravity!"

The pink star-shaped creature chanted a few words and waved her arms in circular motions, sketching silvery glyphs in the air with her fingers, and suddenly everything in the vicinity became heavier. The greatest effect was on the Zubat, both of which were now on the ground, flopping like a Magikarp out of water. "Keep up the tackle barrage!" Dawn ordered Faith, who dodged around the snapping jaws of the Zubat and landed hits on the wings and back of the head until the poison and flying type was out.

"Don't you even _think_ that this is over!" Zubat was recalled, and replaced with Croagunk. Faith kept her head high and stance bold, but she was slightly tired.

"Return, Faith," Dawn said, and sent out Helios.

"Dawn," Lucas whispered to her before she could give any orders for her Kirlia. "Have your Pokémon stand back a bit."

Guessing that he had some kind of strategy in mind, she agreed. "Helios, back up! Get closer to me!"

Her Kirlia backed up, and Miranda began to sing, and little musical notes made out of light began to drift towards the foes. The Croagunk was hit, and fell asleep, but the Zubat dodged before it opened its mouth and shot lights at the two of them. Pulsing lights she recognized as confuse ray.

"Look away!" she warned, but both Miranda and Helios were confused.

"Sing again, Miranda," Lucas yelled desperately.

"Confusion!" Both of their foes were poison types. It didn't matter just which one of them it landed on as long as it hit them and not –

Helios let out a cry and stumbled, usual dancer-like grace lost as he misjudged his step.

Himself. "C'mon, Helios," she clapped her hands, hoping the sharp sounds would snap him out of it.

The sing, on the other hand, put the Zubat out like a light. "Metronome!" Staggering, Miranda waved a finger desperately.

Helios shook his head, but the stumbles were still there. "C'mon," she said. "Confusion – and I'm talking about the attack."

There was a flash from Miranda, and startled, Helios lost what little focus he had been able to gather and fell once more as the Clefairy began to grow roots. "Ingrain," Lucas realized out loud with a slight note of frustration in his voice. The grunts laughed.

But now, Helios climbed to his feet, much more steady than before. "Confusion," Dawn ordered with conviction this time. The Zubat and Croagunk didn't stand a chance at the onslaught of psychic attacks.

When a Stunky was sent out, she recalled Helios. Faith was a bit tired, and Selene would fare much worse than her brother would have. Besides, she didn't really have Selene _on_ her, per say. Her other psychic type was watching their backs, making sure they weren't hit from behind. If there was someone trying to sneak up on them, she and the Bibarel belonging to Lucas were to raise an alarm and stall, respectively.

Which left her with . . . "Don't push yourself," she warned as she sent out Sekhmet, who cracked her neck and stretched out her limbs. "Spark!"

"Wake-up slap," Lucas, apparently tired with setting up tricks brought forwards randomly by metronome, told Miranda. To allow for some limited mobility, her roots began to part from the ground so that all but the tips of the ingrain's marks were loose and out in the air.

The grunt tried to prolong the battle by hiding. "Smokescreen!" he shouted, and his Stunky began puffing out clouds of thick, opaque smoke that hid it from sight.

Dawn wondered if being an idiot was a requirement to be a grunt. He obviously hadn't trained his Pokémon very well, because a smokescreen around oneself in a small area like this didn't do much to hide the Pokémon. It would have been better for the Stunky to shoot the smokescreen a little wider onto their Pokémon and make sure that Sekhmet and Miranda's sights were blocked.

Oh well, his loss was their gain.

Their two Pokémon charged into the thick cover, and from inside the smoke the Stunky cried out in pain. Soon, Sekhmet leapt out of the smokescreen with a satisfied look, while Miranda cackled as she danced out into sight. The Clefairy stopped laughing when she nearly tripped over the roots she was growing at her feet, but it didn't put her out of action. Lucas nodded at Dawn.

But the Stunky wasn't down for the count yet. "Smokescreen again!"

"Metronome, Miranda!"

It was like Lucas was scrambling to grasp straws with the metronome tactic. "Close your eyes, Sekhmet!"

Forewarned, Sekhmet was ready to ignore the distracting flash. This time, the flash of light turned into a focused flame attack – ember. "Follow that up with spark," Dawn said, and Sekhmet was a blur of lightning-covered impact after a burst of fire in the foe's face

The Stunky was unconscious before it even hit the ground.

"Want to give us back the Pokédex?" she asked the two grunts, Lucas and their two Pokémon out glaring. Miranda may not have exactly been intimidating, but Sekhmet sure was.

The grunt holding it grumbled and threw it towards them while his partner spat on the ground. The machine would have sailed over their heads and smashed on the ground, but a psychic glow caught it before it could do so. A Kadabra came out of hiding with eyes glowing and offered the Pokédex he was psychically holding to his trainer. "Thanks, Arthur," Lucas said in relief.

Too busy sighing in relief and celebrating at the return of the Pokédex, neither Dawn nor Lucas saw one of the grunts reach for his belt, the one that held something that could act far faster than the Pokémon the two brats held could react to . . . .

"What's going on here?"

Kids were one thing, but an adult was not what they wanted to see right now. With a quick glance, they nodded and slipped away into the narrow maze-like cracks between the shipping containers that were stacked here and there around the storage areas.

Both Dawn and Lucas turned around to see a familiar man in a trench coat.

"Agent Looker," Lucas said. "Nice to see you again?"

"Likewise," the man from Interpol nodded. "You're Lucas, Professor Rowan's assistant?"

"One of many," but it was obvious that Lucas was flattered that the International Police agent had remembered him. "How have you been?"

"Good," he said vaguely. "I see you fought Team Galactic grunts. I heard about what happened back in Jubilife – was it you two as well that time?"

Dawn nodded. Looker turned to her. "You in particular seem to run into Team Galactic quite a lot," he told her. "Normally, I'd tell you to not stick your neck into dangerous situations, but this time it has worked out rather well."

"Why?"

Looker nodded to one of the warehouses they were surrounded by. "Those grunts were guarding this place. I've been trying to find a way to sneak in, but, well, I haven't had the opportunity until now. And speaking of which, I have to go and check it out before they come back – excuse me."

Oh no he didn't. "Lucas, make sure no one else comes in?"

"What?" the field assistant was startled, but Dawn was already hurrying after Looker into one of the warehouses.

Inside the structure built for storage, Dawn looked around. Everything looked relatively normal . . . except for that titanium sliding door equipped with what looked like lasers, eye-scanners, fingerprint readers and other high-ranking security measures.

She would have thought that she had stumbled upon Looker's Interpol headquarters or hideout, only the yellow logo of a 'G' on the doors said otherwise.

Looker picked up a box from a table on the side of the warehouse, and took out a hidden machine and a dark purple stone. "A hidden machine for fly," he read aloud the label on the HM. He looked at it thoughtfully, and then handed both items to her. Dawn took it, a bit puzzled.

"Keep them," he said as a way of explanation. "I'm sure you'll put them to far better use than Team Galactic."

She shoved both the stone and the HM into the bag, silently wondering if this was considered stealing, yet not really unwilling to take them. She reasoned that the hidden machine and the evolutionary stone was payment for the battle, since the grunts hadn't exactly given them money for winning.

"But interesting," Looker said, eyeing the doors that looked like it could withstand a hundred of Neptune's metal claws easily.

"What is?"

Looker, naturally, was too deep in thought to answer her. "Well," he said at last without addressing her question properly. "Good day."

And then he left.

* * *

AN: Lucas, for the love of god, stop using metronome. This was around the point in time where I decided to train just one of the two Ralts, and went with Helios rather than Selene because I wanted to give the characters in my story a little more diversity with their Pokémon. That might have been a spoiler.

This battle may not be up to par - I was busy (and still am) so I didn't get to go over it very much, or send it to my lovely battle beta.

First 100k+ story! Finally!


	15. Strengthening the Body

A.S.107

September 1st

_I talked to Prof. R about Helios. He's not as scary as I thought he'd be._

* * *

"I heard about that," Maylene said as she screwed the cap back onto her water bottle.

Dawn had thrown a fit when the police of Veilstone said the exact same thing that the police of Eterna had said – that they couldn't arrest the grunts responsible. "I'm sure they're all guilty of something!" Dawn had exclaimed.

The detective looked like he wanted nothing more to agree and slam the lot of them into jail as fast as he could grab them. His partner, however, had been a bit cooler-headed. "Galactic Corporations claim that the grunts going around acting like they belong to a gang are people hired by their competition to ruin their public image," she explained. "And every time we try to arrest one out on the streets, he or she always claims to be a legitimate member of Galactic Corporations that has 'nothing to do with one of the hooligans running around impersonating good people, and why aren't the police doing anything to catch the criminals instead of arresting legitimate citizens'," she added that part with no small amount of bitterness.

"We could identify them," Dawn tried.

The guy detective perked up, but the woman only sighed. "Could you really?"

Under the watchful gaze, Lucas had been amazed to see the willful girl deflate. ". . . No," she admitted.

And then she had stormed out. Lucas had followed her to the center, where she ran into Barry.

After getting their Pokémon healed, the two of them started ranting to each other about completely different things, loud voices causing a ruckus and trying to overtake each other. Lucas suspected that neither heard the other's words, but let out their tirade anyways without caring whether it was heard by someone or not.

He waited until they stopped, red-faced and out of breath, and did the only thing he could think of, which was to take them out for something to eat, digging into the allowance the professor had given him. This, he thought to dispel guilty thoughts, counted as extra expenses, since all three of them worked for the professor. Besides, he owed Dawn for helping him out of a really tight spot.

"I want noodles, and meat, and maybe some meatballs-" Barry began listing off everything he wanted to eat, but Dawn poked him on his shoulder to make him stop talking.

"Maybe ice cream?" she suggested, pointing to a decorated shop with colourful pictures on the window.

That sounded nice. They went in, chose their flavours after some serious thought – because frozen treats were always serious business – and then paid the cashier. Despite Lucas trying to pay for them, the other two insisted on covering their own costs.

"Can Pokémon eat ice cream?" Dawn asked, taking a small bite from her razz berry ice cream.

"Some can," Lucas replied. "Others, not really. You have to research the diet restrictions for some Pokémon. Most canine Pokémon, for example, can't really eat chocolate without getting sick or dying. They'll have to eat a significant amount to die," he added at the look on both Dawn and Barry's faces, "but still, caution needs to be taken, and there's really no point on flirting with danger, so . . . yeah."

He took a bite out of the plain, sweet cream flavoured treat he held in an attempt to not dwell on the awkward ending of his words. Like Dawn, he had only bought a cone with one scoop.

Barry paused in his devouring of his deluxe cone with three generous scoops, all different bright colours with sweet berry flavouring. "Can we see that on our 'dex?" he asked, pulling his device out. Lucas was a bit surprised at the good condition it was in. From his character, Lucas had guessed that it would have been dirty and battered at the very least, if not broken. Instead, it was clean and well-kept. While it had a few scratches at the edges, it was obviously in good condition.

"Yeah," he said, reaching over to tap at a few buttons and draw up a Pokémon's page. In this case, it was one on Grotle. There were a lot of notes taken by Barry, and the extensiveness of them took Lucas by surprise once again. "See," he said, fiddling with the controls. "If you go here and double-click using the 'a' button, you can get the necessary requirements to look after the Pokémon."

"Didn't know that was there," Barry sounded impressed. "Thanks, man."

"It's no problem."

After Lucas demonstrated how to reach the diet restrictions with Dawn, they stepped outside of the ice cream parlour, where they found the gym leader staring wistfully at the sign showing off a beautiful picture of a perfectly shaped ice cream cone.

She declined the suggestion to get one of her own even as she constantly shot looks of longing at their cones, and instead intently listened to their complaints. "The pressure's particularly strong for Veilstone and Eterna," she explained to Dawn now. "Galactic Corporations have two main bases, in Eterna and Veilstone."

Dawn's head snapped up. "But the Eterna building was what Team Galactic used!" she cried. "There's proof, _right_ there!"

But Maylene shook her head. "We already had the reports. Regular employees all testified that they had been suddenly given vacations all at the same time to celebrate the company's breakthrough, while higher officers were forcibly locked into the branch building's storage rooms after being threatened into giving out vacation notices."

"Did they have security footage or something?" Dawn asked. "If we take a look at the tapes-"

Maylene sighed. "Their security cameras were compromised, so we only have their words to go on. And their stories all matched in interviews, so . . ." she shrugged.

Interviews, not interrogations. The blue-haired girl scowled, and then wiped a drop of melted cream off of her hand when the forgotten razz began to drip. "That sucks."

"I'll say," her blond friend agreed, finishing off his cone first despite having bought the largest one between the three of them. "What have you been getting involved in without me, anyways?"

Dawn stuck her tongue, turned blood-red by the razz berry's colour, out towards the blond boy. "None of your business," she replied, even if she'd been ranting about it to him not even an hour ago.

Barry huffed. "Fine! I'll just find out anyways!"

"Hey," Lucas put his hands up. "Behave, guys, there's a gym leader watching."

At his reminder they shuffled and settled, a little embarrassed. "Wait, so there's a Galactic building in this city?" Barry said after a few seconds.

"Yes," Maylene nodded. "Galactic Corporations bought a building up in the northern sections of Veilstone nearly two years ago. It's their laboratory and headquarters in one. I hear the security there is rather tight, but the company claims it's to protect their top-secret, classified research."

"Isn't that suspicious?"

The pink-haired girl looked like she would want nothing more than to agree with Dawn. "Unfortunately, not for a company who competes with some of the world's best innovators," she said. "And Galactic Corporations already have their excuses and lawyers. All perfectly legitimate. They claim they want clean energy, and more studies done regarding potentials in space, especially since Mossdeep in Hoenn seems to be leading in the world's progress regarding research on space. The Sinnoh League loves it since private sectors are . . . ." Maylene trailed off when she saw the blank looks on the two trainers and the slightly-confused look on the aide. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "It's just that I have to deal with that kind of stuff a lot, being the gym leader and all."

"You're cool," Dawn told her.

"Thanks. But my point is, Galactic Corps have a reason to be secretive. The reason why they gave their employees a holiday is because they completed up upgrade on Porygon-2. Now they're getting the legal bills and legislations settled and lobbied, hence all the cloak-and-daggers business going on."

Porygon was a controversial Pokémon, being manmade. It was a software, an artificially intelligent being placed within artificially created flesh. Artificial life and intelligence, created by man through unnatural means. Outspoken, radical religious people had sent petitions and even some threats to Silph. Co's main building in Saffron over its existence and continued reproduction. Sinnoh had temporarily gone through a 'red zone', so to speak, five years ago during the year 102 when the very atmosphere had been tense as the more fanatical citizens of Sinnoh had protested the 'abomination' being used by the League to take care of many parts of the system. It had eventually passed with only a few minor infractions – the League was threatened with riots but only minor cases of vandalism occurred – and things had settled down.

Porygon was controversial, and Porygon-2's creation had led to old waves being stirred up to the surface once more. Silph Co. had taken their created Pokémon further and 'enhanced' it by creating additional software for all Porygon, a disc that could be absorbed by the artificial life form to make it 'evolve' two years ago, three years after the creation of Porygon. There were apparently problems with making Porygon-2 from scratch, however, and so the only way was to create Porygon, and then give it an upgrade to make it evolve.

Neither was particularly popular in Sinnoh where religion was a core part of everything, but there was no denying the Porygon line's extreme usefulness in anything related to technology. Hackers loved the help these artificial creatures could give them, while on the other side programmers, governments and anyone with some interest in computer security saw them as the only means of facing the army of code monsters in the hands of computer criminals. Scientists and humanists saw them as a milestone in history – a mark of just how far humanity had come. For trainers, because the written coding in every single Porygon made them function almost exactly like other Pokémon in aspects of battle, they made great additions to a team. Some clergy members were beginning to argue that the gods wouldn't have granted Porygon life if they hadn't approved of its existence, and the opinion was beginning to spread.

After all, the benefits far outweighed the harms.

Lucas wondered what an upgrade for Porygon-2 would mean. Despite being controversial, the Porygon line had been an immense success that was now an integral part of their lives, and fairly popular with trainers. Would the upgraded upgrade be the same?

Maylene leaned her chin on her locked fingers. "They announced that the new life form would be called 'Porygon-Z'," she told them. "Haven't you seen this on the news recently? It's been everywhere."

Barry, Dawn and Lucas all grinned sheepishly. "We were busy," Dawn spoke for all of them. Barry would have been too occupied running around, she had been training and shopping and Lucas had been at the game corner. Busy. Occupied, yes.

Maylene shrugged. "I say no to breaking into the headquarters," she said sternly. "But I won't mind showing you the place. Do you want to see the headquarters and main laboratory of Galactic Corporations?"

* * *

"So you think these ruins have some death to them?" Bryan asked, running a hand through his sweaty hair before putting his hat back on. The weather was beginning to get chilly as Sinnoh began turning to the winters it was famous for, but he'd been hiking for a good two hours now. His body was radiating warmth.

The psychic he'd hired nodded, looking more put together than Bryan did. "My Pokémon feel them too," he said, gesturing at the Kadabra, who looked as disinterested in the affairs of the world as others of its species often did.

Bryan frowned. "Where'd your Haunter go? He was just here a minute ago, wasn't he?"

Mitchell opened his mouth to answer when he stiffened. At the same time, the Kadabra snapped into alert attention, suddenly more interested in the real world.

"Hee hee hee!" cackling with laughter, a Haunter flew into their vicinity. It was, Bryan was pretty sure, the Haunter that belonged to Mitchell. He began letting his guard down a bit at the ghost's appearance, when he realized that the two psychics, both human and Pokémon, were still tense.

He began to reach for his own Pokémon, wondering if there was a problem. He had three on him right now, and while neither he nor his Pokémon were the best battlers in the world he'd held off his fair share of dangers with their help.

From the way the psychics reacted, he'd been expecting a monster like a rabid Aggron to come thrashing in their paths. What he got was a black haired woman walk in on them. She looked like a trainer, dressed in sensible gray and yellow clothes suited for the outdoors, and she nodded politely at them before moving past them to go on her merry way. She made a turn left from where they were, and headed down a barely open trail into the woods.

Mitchell's Haunter laughed, while Mitchell and his Kadabra remained tense until she was long gone. Only when she'd been gone for a good number of moments did he relax.

"What was that about?" Bryan asked as Mitchell began leading him once more. He didn't fail to notice that the psychic was keeping his distance from the woods the woman had gone into.

Mitchell didn't speak, and Bryan had almost forgotten about his question. "She felt different," he replied at last, and it took Bryan a moment to remember that he had asked the psychic a question.

His Haunter cackled again, and Bryan tried to not snap at the ghost. It annoyed him, and the ghost knew it. "What do you mean, different?" he asked.

Mitchell opened his mouth, but then closed it. "I can't explain," he settled for.

Bryan shrugged. If it didn't have to do with him, he wasn't going to try and delve into the mysteries of the psychic minds.

It wasn't until they were in front of a cave where some faded paintings were barely visible on the rock walls that Mitchell spoke again. "I've been on this route far more times than I can count," he said quietly, and Bryan paused in his examination of the paintings for a clue that might lead him into finding more knowledge about the Spear Pillars. "And I've never seen that trail before."

Bryan fought back a shudder. Whatever Mitchell was trying to tell him, it was creeping him out and he didn't like it. "Okay, enough with the talk about that woman," he said in a falsely bright voice. "_Please_."

* * *

Lucas stared down at the Porygon in his hands. The Porygon stared back.

"What do I name," he thought for a moment, but couldn't quite come up with what sex this artificial life form was. He was pretty sure they didn't have a set gender. "Er, it?"

Dawn craned her neck, standing on the very tips of her toes to see. "I think it's a he," she said, offering her opinion.

"Me too," Barry poked at the Porygon's angular side and exclaimed in surprise when the living program stiffened and sharpened. "Did you see that?"

"That's cool," Lucas blurted out, and then cringed at how immature he sounded. That's cool? What was he, five?

Neither of his peers showed any derision, however, and Lucas relaxed after realizing that he wouldn't be judged for it.

Maylene shrugged, amused yet curious. The man who had given the boy the Porygon had said that he had found the Porygon near the Galactic Corporation laboratories, where the discs holding upgrades for Porygon-2 were being developed or had been developed in.

He would have had returned the Pokémon to, but he had been reluctant because the Porygon had been scared and in a battered state upon discovery. At the same time, the man explained, rubbing the back of his head as he told her privately away from the ears of the three kids that had been fascinated with the Pokémon, he had been just as reluctant to report it outright as abuse. He didn't want to bring the wrathful might of a company down upon him, and it really could have been a misunderstanding. After all, Galactic Corporation didn't do anything _wrong_, right?

She didn't blame his views. Since he had been able to catch the injured Porygon, it technically had been a 'wild' Pokémon, and now that it was his he could do whatever he wanted with it – within reason – which was why, after telling his story to the gym leader, he had simply passed it along to the first trainer that had shown the slightest bit of interest. Lucas, in this case.

She wanted to rub the bridge of her nose, but stopped and settled for scratching at the spot behind her ear. It was suspicious, but so circumstantial at the same time and until she had definite proof, even police inspectors didn't listen to her, thanks to her not being nineteen.

Maylene was proud to be the youngest gym leader of Sinnoh and all . . . but she couldn't wait until she was of legal age.

"I've got to go," she said when she realized that it was time to train. "But take good care of that Porygon – and yourselves, alright?"

"Alright," the three kids chorused. Maylene was only a few years older than them, but she felt a lot more responsible all of a sudden.

"Good luck, all three of you," she said before returning to the gym.

For the rest of the day, they headed out to a park to let their Pokémon out in the hopes that Alan would get used to being with other Pokémon. There was a rule about the number of Pokémon trainers could have out per person in the park, so after some thought Dawn released Helios and Faith, Helios since he was a psychic, and Faith because she was a normal type.

Lucas let out Charlotte. Barry sent out two completely new Pokémon.

"This is Billie Jean," he said, gesturing towards the Mime. Jr, who twirled on the tips of her toes before bowing deeply with a playful giggle. "And the Tyrogue is Bruce."

Unlike the showy psychic, Bruce simply nodded.

Barry's choices, Dawn guessed, had been made in the hopes that newer Pokémon would bond better over their newness. It was a good idea – it had worked like that for Faith and Themis – but it didn't work out in this situation.

Billie Jean was infatuated with Helios the moment she laid eyes on him. She followed him around, chirping and making wild gestures. Dawn's Kirlia politely tried to evade her attentions, but the Mime. Jr was absolutely determined, and continued to pursue him, much to his chagrin.

Charlotte meant well, approaching and apparently introducing herself to the Porygon after Lucas explained, but she was soon distracted and called away by Bruce, who seemed interested in seeing just how agile she could be in a fight. She was reluctant, but demonstrated a few mach punches for the fighting type's sake.

Faith kept to her original mission of engaging with Alan, but she was far too interested. She made inquisitive sounds as she prodded at the Porygon, squealing with delight every time he stiffened and changed shape or type. She was having more fun playing with the Porygon's abilities than she was making Alan feel comfortable.

In the end Dawn decided to take pity on Helios and swap him out for Selene. Billie Jean sulked at that, but along with the other psychic got to talking with Alan, rescuing him from Faith's constant prodding. The Porygon managed to get out of his shell enough to join the others in a game of tag when Faith pulled everyone into it. Charlotte and Faith had the definite advantage with their speed, but Selene could teleport, and Bruce was skilled at dodging touches.

Then Dawn joined in, and Barry soon after. Lucas, when both of them waved frantically at him to jump in, did as well, and it became a free-for-all where the 'it' was never particularly clear, but they all had fun shrieking and running away from each other anyways. Occasionally, to make it fair, they swapped out Pokémon until Alan had met all the other Pokémon.

By the end of the day, they were all sweaty and tired, but in the good way that had their muscles relaxed from fun times, and sore throats from laughing or shouting too much.

* * *

Barry left a day after that, claiming that he had honey trees to check on. Dawn gave him what she had left of hers from Floaroma, as she didn't do a particularly good job of slathering them on the bark. She found it too sticky to spread consistently, and didn't want to go back only to find a Wurmple.

Lucas, also, had decided to leave the city quickly in order to not become tempted by the slot machines of the game corner again. With Alan the Porygon as a new addition to his party, he decided to go and focus on getting back on track with filling his Pokédex by catching more Pokémon. "Maybe I'll be able to save up enough to get myself an up-grade for Alan," he said.

The Porygon, dubbed male for convenience, didn't mind and bobbed up and down happily at the thought of evolving into a Porygon-2, and becoming a better version of himself. "But I'm not so sure about a Porygon-Z just yet."

"Then wait," Barry, before leaving, had shrugged. Lucas had agreed to what he had said, and decided that evolution wasn't necessarily a demand at the time. Alan didn't mind that either.

Dawn, however, stayed in Veilstone for a week, spending every day at the gym with her Pokémon in the self-defense classes offered to trainers and students in the city. Sometimes she worked on strategy, but mostly she and the others learnt either hand-to-hand combat or just the basics of self-defense. Her Pokémon couldn't always save or protect her from danger, and it had been a few years since she took martial art classes.

The classes were surprisingly empty. Maylene, who taught it herself, also let her have her Pokémon out and pick up a few tricks from martial arts that they could incorporate into battles since there were so few people attending these sessions.

The Pokémon that benefited most from this, however, was Helios. She had steeled the nerve to call Professor Rowan to ask about evolution related to Gallade, and had been surprised to find that the professor was . . .

Well, she supposed 'friendly' wasn't exactly the word. More like 'helpful' and 'approving'. But definitely not too scary or mean or cold or condescending, not at all like what she'd been fearing. In fact, she found it nicer to see that he was helpful and approving than friendly. That would have been weird.

"A dawn stone," the professor had said last night. "That's what you'll need to evolve your Gallade. However, let me give you some advice."

Professor Rowan cleared his throat before starting. "The evolutions of the Ralts family that takes place without outside factors like dawn stones have high special attacks. Even in the stages as Ralts and Kirlia, the special attack is favoured over physical attack. Not so much the Gallade evolution, which is believed to be a mutation that took place to ensure the line would have a way to protect its young from diverse foes and predators with different weaknesses. Gallade have attacks as high as a Gardevoir's special attack, but the massive jump from a weak attack in Kirlia stages of evolution to a Gallade can be disconcerting for many Gallade if they aren't prepared for it."

Dawn frowned, the pen she'd been using to jot down notes hovering above the parts of paper not written on. "Prepared? So, should they be aware of it? Like, know that they're going to change into a Gallade rather than a Gardevoir?"

"That," agreed Professor Rowan, "but also, they should grow used to fighting without using special attacks. This may be a bit of a challenge, because Kirlia don't naturally learn physical attacking moves. Do you still have the TM that I gave you, in the beginning of your journey?"

"Yes," Dawn said. "Return, right?"

Professor Rowan nodded. "Your Kirlia should be able to learn that. Until he evolves into a Gallade, have him get used to attacking physically with return. The sudden change may still feel abrupt, but this way he'll be more prepared to deal with it."

Dawn smiled. It had been a good idea, asking him for advice. "Thank you, professor," she said.

"You're welcome," he replied before logging out of the video chat.

Following his advice, Dawn had taken the TM and taught return to Helios. It was weird, watching a Kirlia in a ring with a Machoke or a Meditite, but Helios was determined to make it work. Even when the two physical brawlers knocked him off his feet over and over again, he kept getting back up, and only took breaks when the two Pokémon he was sparring against decided to take a rest themselves.

And if her Pokémon was working this hard, then she had to be a trainer worthy of that effort.

She hadn't taken martial arts for a few years, and relearning the basics were proving to be hard work, especially given her instructors, martial artists who, while not aiming to hurt, sometimes didn't know their own strength when demonstrating flips on her and knocked the air out from her lungs.

"I used to think that I was fit," she told Maylene after the warm up, which consisted of fifteen laps around the gym and twenty minutes of intense cardio that made her heart nearly give out in protest. She was a sweaty mess, and her legs throbbed with fierce pain.

Maylene didn't even look phased. "You get used to it," she said, voice normal and not shaky with exhaustion.

"Is that a part of being a gym leader?" Dawn wiped off some sweat and took a bottle of water one of the gym's Pokémon offered with deep gratitude.

"Amongst other things. If we're going to train Pokémon," Maylene paused, picked up a medicine ball with one hand and then tossed it in the direction of a Medicham. The psychic fighter smoothly bent backwards to avoid it, and Arya the Lucario, further behind the Medicham, caught the medicine ball and threw it back to Maylene. She caught it without any trouble and put it back down on the shelf she grabbed it from. "We have to do a lot to keep in shape, both physically and mentally."

The two of them went into the gym to begin the lessons.

"No," the black belt instructed as he examined her attempt at throwing a punch. Today they were working on punches, like hooks and jabs. "Make your two largest knuckles line up with the bones in your forearm. Make them one solid bar and then wham!" he demonstrated by smashing his fist into the target his brother was holding, making an impressive sound that only Dawn reacted to. The other members of the gym just continued on with whatever they were doing.

"Like this," she said, seeking confirmation.

He glanced at her grip. "Thumb out."

Dawn fixed it and got a nod of approval.

"So what else do gym leaders do?" she asked as she pounded away at a target. She had the general idea on what the duties of a gym leader were, but she wanted to hear it from an actual gym leader's mouth.

Maylene was standing a bit away from Dawn. Unlike Dawn, who was working with a non-living target that didn't hit back, she was sparring with her Lucario. She blocked Arya's front paw, had her own punch blocked and moved slightly backwards to avoid a thrust at her abdomen. She yielded and tapped the ground when Arya lunged forwards to sweep her legs out from under her. "Well," she said, grabbing the towel from a nearby chair and using it to wipe off her face. "We're supposed to keep the peace in the city."

"'Supposed' to?"

The pink-haired girl shrugged. "It's an old system," she said. "Less responsibility's placed on our shoulders than before. Now, we make sure that we train Pokémon in cases of emergency where good old-fashioned punching power wins out – like a wild hoard of Pokémon threatening the city – and watch out for trainers that might abuse any of their Pokémon."

Maylene paused in her towel-down when Dawn's eyes focused almost entirely on her, an air of seriousness all around her. "Do you protect your home?" she asked.

"Not quite yet in the way you're thinking of," Maylene said. "Despite being a gym leader, I'm still a minor, and I don't quite have the same liberty with my movements like other gym leaders because I'm so young."

Dawn was a smart kid. "But gym leaders protect their homes?" she drew upon what Maylene implied in her sentence.

"That's our job," Maylene nodded. "See, a gym leader doesn't just battle the travellers. What we're supposed to do is a lot more than just hand out pieces of metal that assesses a trainer's power. We're the ones that make sure that strong trainers are present within city walls in case wild Pokémon attack, and in doing so we represent the city in a way that politicians can't. We have to be the public face of the city, and to do that we have to let the people love us."

There were exceptions, of course, the most notable being Giovanni of Team Rocket, who had kept his identity secret and spent as little time as possible in his gym, using fear of being assassinated as an excuse to hide himself. Apparently most of Viridian city hadn't even known that they _had_ a functioning gym, much less a gym leader. After _that_ Persian had been let out of the bag, all the leagues had enforced gym leader bonding sessions. She hadn't been a leader from before that time, but she heard that the relationship between gym leaders were a lot better in the present than they had been.

"Actually," she continued on. "Most members of the League have that job as civil servants. If the League feels desperate, they'll send over gym leaders or members of the Elite Four to investigate. And, our current Champion enjoys running around the region looking over things."

_That_ was news. "The current Champion?" Dawn perked up. Sinnoh's Champion and Elite Four kept their identities under wrap. Trainers challenging the members of the league's final frontier who chose to remain anonymous apparently had an unspoken code of honour to keep their silence about just who they had faced, if not keeping it quiet that they had challenged the league at all. Members of the League in on the secret kept their mouths shut as well, making it one of the most well-kept secrets from the public.

Maylene knew the current Champion. Cynthia Prentiss was an incredible woman, an awesome friend, a fantastic battler and just an extraordinary human being in general. Arya liked her very much, which was more than enough as a recommendation of good faith on itself, but even without that going for her, Cynthia was a very genuine person with a deep interest in inquiring about everything in a way that wasn't nosy, but more along the lines of concerned inquisitiveness. She had once admitted at a league gathering that she kept her identity under wraps so she could socialize with people as an actual person and not as an idol.

Now she took advantage of her undercover champion status to patrol the region for any dangers.

Others would disagree with her, of course. Cynthia, along with a few other skilled men and women had near single-handedly brought down three terrorist rings before they became threats to Sinnoh's security, using methods that may not have necessarily been orthodox or respectful of rights. They could have claimed that with her anonymity, she got away with breaking and ignoring laws and rights because her actions weren't scrutinized by public eye.

That was also true, but that, along with anonymity, was the price Cynthia paid to keep Sinnoh safe. She, along with other members of the Elite Four, didn't even participate in tournaments anymore to not give any clue of their real skill levels and identities.

"Yes," Maylene said, before tossing the towel onto the back of the chair. "Now, I think your hooks needed some more work."

Dawn didn't ask for the identity of the Champion, but her stance was much more determined than before as she pounded away at the sandbags in the gym.

* * *

That night at her room at the center, Dawn continued her search for a dawn stone for Helios. At the department store, the cost had been ridiculous and far beyond her budget, so she was looking online for them.

Unfortunately, evolution stones were expensive both in physical stores and online. Online stores weren't much better than their physical counterparts, so she was sorting through any offers being made by other trainers in hopes that they would be cheaper.

She was disappointed by what she found. While the prices were marginally better on the official Sinnoh League Trainer's page online, she was more than a little dismayed to find that the few that were being offered up for sale by other trainers were at sky-high prices, costs that would set her back tremendously in funds.

"Wish Looker found a dawn stone instead," she muttered, thinking about the only evolutionary stone she had in her possession. Sure, dusk stones were nice and rare and all that, but she didn't have a Pokémon that could use it right now. She supposed she could save it for the future, in case she needed to make some money or acquired a Pokémon who could use it, but right now . . . .

The search, made painful by the lack of findings and the small screen of the Pokédex she was using to surf the web, was tiring her out. Dawn was about to give up on her search for the night and go to sleep when her eye caught one of the comments, offering a bargain instead of paying in cash. A trade.

She went to the home page of the website, and went to trades. Under Pokémon trades, there was a link to forums for items.

After a quick read-through, her hopes were answered when she found someone offering one of a selection of stones in exchange for a dusk stone. One of the items offered was a dawn stone.

Quickly, before anyone else could snatch up the deal, she sent a message to the user and waited anxiously. The green dot next to the ID said he was online, so –

The Pokédex dinged as a message came in reply, agreeing to her offer. The guy said that he lived in Pastoria, and wasn't in possession of a flier.

'That's fine,' she typed back, 'I'm going to be heading to Pastoria soon.' There was a tournament in that area, and she wanted to enter it. After that, she'd challenge the gym for the badge.

'How soon?' was the question she received.

'As soon as possible,' she wrote, before realizing that it sounded snappy and deleting her words. Instead, she tapped in 'At least by September 14th', and hoped that was good enough for the guy on the other end.

The reply came too slowly for her liking, but the answer was a good one. 'Alright, deal. Message me when you reach Pastoria, and we can meet at the Pokemon Center near the east gate.'

Dawn leaned back onto the thin bed offered by the center and let out a whoop.

* * *

Looker didn't like battles. He liked Pokémon, yes, but he was still rather reluctant at the idea of taking sentient creatures away from their homes and family, keeping them entrapped in spheres like possessions and using them to fight. Fight against each other until they were knocked unconscious, at that.

No one should have been taken away from their family.

Interpol, however, did require that all of their agents have at least one partner Pokémon, much like the rangers of the ranger nations did. As his disguise skills were extraordinary, he had no need for a Ditto's help with changing his face. Fly and teleport transporters weren't a direct requirement, and he wasn't a fan of both ways of travelling, which left him in need of a Pokémon capable of fighting.

His partner was a Croagunk, and Looker had taken him to several psychic consultants to make sure that the poison- and fighting-type was alright with being his partner.

"I'm sure you'll like Pastoria," he told Ali as they passed the gates. "Croagunk are the mascot of the city."

Ali sniffed, but didn't comment.

Pastoria was a decent city. Despite being a human establishment, it was a city kept very close to a natural state, with plenty of trees and small ponds around. A few Pokémon wandered around without noticeable human trainers accompanying them, and all the houses had well-kept gardens.

The only other city he had been to that had been closer to nature had been Fortree City, in Hoenn. The oxygen here was just as clean as the city in the trees had been, and the people that he could see were smiling and going on with their lives happily. According to statistics, Pastoria was one of the happiest cities in the region of Sinnoh, if not the world.

But the entire sight gave Looker's stomach a sick feeling of worry. Back in Veilstone, while eavesdropping on people in the game corner, he had overheard certain talks about a package to be dropped off at Pastoria. He wouldn't have bothered cataloguing that particular bit of information if the people he'd been eavesdropping on hadn't been people he had tagged as definitely 'Team Galactic Grunts'. He knew their identities as civilians, but instead of arresting them he had instead decided to keep them as leads, something which had paid off with the information he gleaned from listening in on them.

Looker doubted that 'the package' meant anything good. While there was always the chance that he was wrong, his gut feeling told him that something bad was about to happen. And his gut feeling was never wrong.

He glanced at Ali, who was just as wary of the city. Every now and then, his Croagunk shuddered, his ability allowing him to detect something dangerous.

Looker's mouth twisted in a grim smile that had absolutely no humour behind it. He wasn't wrong. Now he just had to stop whatever danger lurked around before it happened.

He turned and stepped into a dimly lit restaurant with fingerprint-stained glass doors and a sign that said 'No Pokémon'. The girl behind the counter gave him a fake smile – she was around sixteen, probably working a part-time job to earn money – and took him to a table. "I'm expecting a friend," he told her in a slightly raspy voice dramatically different from his own that belonged to the character he was to take on for his undercover duty.

"Alright," she said, nervously fidgeting with a pen and a piece of paper. "Would you like to order beforehand?"

He looked at the menu and chose the first picture his eyes landed on. "The House Special Soup, please," he said. "Large."

The waitress looked relieved at the simple order. "Any drinks?" she asked in a slightly happier voice.

"Water. Two glasses with ice?"

"Alright," she left, and returned a few moments later with his water. He thanked her and she left once more.

The door bell chimed, and a man wearing a brown scarf walked in. "I'm looking for a table for two-" the newcomer began to tell the girl.

"Over here," he called and waved. Nodding, the newcomer joined him. He ordered a dish of fried rice from the girl and stayed satisfied at the water for his choice of drink.

"How's life in Sinnoh treating you?" the newcomer asked him.

"Pretty good," Looker replied in the precise words. "I've been staying in Floaroma – great town, really."

Their identities confirmed, the other agent handed over a USB drive and a set of keys that Looker pocketed in a secret fold of his coat. The girl working was out of sight, but judging from the sounds of the water running, she was washing something in the sink behind the corner.

"I look forward to working with you," Looker told his new handler under his breath. When he heard the clanking sounds of full dishes hitting metal, he began to talk just a bit louder. "Your daughter's still in track races?"

The handler snorted, the image of a proud father showing off. "Try _winning_ them," he chortled.

The waitress gave them nervous smiles and unloaded her tray onto the table, hesitating when she wasn't sure which order went to whom. When she backed off with the tray clutched to her chest, they dug into the food. For a restaurant this grubby, the food was actually pretty good. If only the dishes and cutlery were cleaner.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxio), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Selene (Ralts), Faith (Eevee)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Frejya (Buneary)

* * *

AN: I'll start listing Dawn's Pokémon at the bottom of every chapter, since it may get a little confusing for people to keep track of them. This was more of a filler chapter, so it wasn't as important. That being said, yes, Lucas got the Porygon and the Togepi. I think Porygon fits him well.

I'd like to recommend a story called 'Touching the Sky' by Alphinia - it's an adventure story based on the Hoenn games, so I figure people liking this would like that one as well. Also, I'd like to recommend anything by delcatty546 - she writes romance better than I ever could hope to, and since it looks like the only romance you'll get in Titanium is by minor characters on the side, go get your hits of love over there.

Finally, thank you so much for the reviews. It's a really stressful time for me, and reading your kind comments had me feeling a lot better. Also, thank you to the three communities 'Titanium' was added to. It's the first story of mine to be added to three communities, so yay!


	16. The Verge of Change

A.S.107

September 7th

_Pastoria. Working on Helios evolving._

* * *

Early in the morning, Dawn swapped out Selene for Frejya. She looked around the room she'd been staying in at the center, shaking out the thin sheets and checking under the thin cot for any miscellaneous belongings of her she may have left behind. Once she was absolutely sure she hadn't left anything, she grabbed her bag and left the room.

At the southern exit of the city, she let out her Pokémon and took out her bike. "Keep near me, and when you want a break, come tell me. Don't wander off on your own, alright?"

Once she'd gotten the promise from all of them, they set off. Her Pokémon jogged, and she biked. She herself would have jogged, but it was a lot more efficient for them all if she biked with her bag strapped tightly onto her bike, and she still got a lot of exercise. Biking decreased the amount of time she had to spend on the road. She was getting through Sinnoh at least three times faster than she'd expected.

Dawn knew it wouldn't last. Eventually she and her Pokémon start peaking. They would begin to reach their limit, and their progress would slow down before gradually coming to a stop.

Eventually she would have to start looking for challenges to stop the slowing of growth, challenges beyond what battles on the routes or preparations for gyms could offer her. Eventually she'd have to go off the routes, spending days in the wild roughing it.

She could do it. She didn't want to do it, but she could and she would do it.

When the time came.

In the meantime, she was enjoying life, and biking down Route 214. Neptune was practicing his slides, shooting out bubble beams laden with water to create slick trails ahead of him before jumping down and sliding forwards like an avian bobsleigh a good ten meters before he slowed down, moisture no longer smoothing out his path for him. At the end he always picked himself up, ran some more before repeating the sliding process. This let him work on his speed, endurance, agility and water use.

Helios did something similar. He would run hard for about ten minutes – but always stayed in her line of sight – and then for the next ten minutes he would only move forwards via teleportation. He was supposed to work more on his physical strengths, but teleportation wasn't limited to special attackers, and would make for a good way to sneak up on opponents. Not only that, but teleport, despite being easily blocked and restricted in cities, was also a good way of getting out of tight spots. It was a skill that would prove to be useful, and so Helios worked on it.

Frejya, Faith and Sekhmet paced themselves, pouring all of their focus on building their stamina. Sekhmet, especially, was tasked with running a charge across her body for as long as she could hold it while she ran to work on her endurance and control over electricity. Occasionally Faith and Frejya would abruptly weave in her way to throw off her rhythm to test her reactions.

Above their heads, Themis flew. She scouted ahead, came back and made sure none of the others were lagging behind or wandering away, and returned to report to Dawn if there was anything of interest. She was the eye in the sky, and amazingly helpful.

Halfway down Route 214, Faith suddenly perked up. "Hey, what's wrong?" Dawn asked her, only for the Eevee to ignore her and dash forwards excitedly.

"Themis, follow Faith! Don't lose her," she added. While her Golbat flew off, she called to the rest of her Pokémon so she wouldn't lose track of them either. "Sekhmet! Helios! Guys, come on!"

Then, once everyone was accounted for, Dawn hurried after the blue and purple figure in the air far ahead. She biked furiously, and nearly tipped over when the tires stumbled over a rock, but Dawn finally caught up to Faith and Themis. The latter was perched in the shade of a tree's branches while the former was running circles around three other Pokémon, all larger than her. One was red, with fluffy tan fur around its chest and tail. Another one had golden fur, sticking out in spikes everywhere with a collar of white fur around its neck. The last one was blue, and didn't look like it had fur at all, but instead smooth blue skin, a white ruff, fins on its head and a fish-like tail.

An amused man was looking at Faith skipping around his three Pokémon. "Hey," he said. "Is this your Eevee?"

"Yeah," Dawn dismounted from her bike, nudged the kickstand down with her foot and clapped her hands to catch the normal type's attention. Faith looked at her, shot one last glance towards the three, and then ran to her to stand at Dawn's side. "Good girl, Faith."

The man looked a lot more interested. "Your Eevee's a girl?" he asked. "Well, that explains the interest these three had in her . . . ."

"These are Eeveelutions, right?" she asked. "Do you mind if I scan them in my Pokédex? It doesn't hurt them – it just records their physique and gathers some data about them."

He nodded. "Go ahead," he gestured.

While she did so, Faith wandered away and went to interact with the three again, this time in a calmer manner than she had before. "You guys are so _big_!" she said, jumping in an attempt to meet their gaze at eye level.

The Vaporeon, the largest amongst the three, preened. "Thanks," he said. "I'm Curly."

"I'm Faith," she introduced.

Curly was pushed away by the Jolteon. "Ignore the clown," he said, nodding to Curly's ruff. "I'm Larry. Nice to meet you, Faith."

"Nice to meet you, too," she said, only to watch Larry get grabbed by the back of his neck and yanked away.

"Name's Moe," the Flareon grinned at her, before hissing when he was hit with a stream of water by Curly. "Hey, fish-breath, watch it!"

"Hey, guys, settle down," their trainer barked at them and they followed his orders, although they grumbled a bit. Their trainers went back to talking about something that bored all four of them. Dawn, to appease the boredom, told her Pokémon to mingle, or just take a rest. While Faith was all for speaking with members of her species that had undergone evolution, the others gathered under the tree Themis was roosting in, taking a seat and keeping their distance.

"So," Curly said after they had settled down. "What do you want to evolve into?"

Evolution was one of the most important aspects of an Eevee's life. Each possible choice had its own advantages and disadvantages, and all of them were so different that it all just came down to the preference of the Eevee in question, yet there was only one chance that would decide the course of their lives. Once you evolved, that was that.

"Me?" Faith sighed inside. The usual conversations she'd had with her sisters about their futures. Hope and Charity had both been sure about what they'd wanted, but she hadn't ever been really _sure_. Mama had told her that she would know when it became important, but she didn't. "Gee, I don't know," she said, not particularly enthusiastic to have this age-old conversation.

All three of them started talking again, trying to convince her that the shape they had taken was the absolute best choice and pushing their faces forwards to get their point across better than the other. Faith shrunk back, feeling a bit crowded and a lot pressured but not willing to be rude and talk back to her seniors who had already evolved, when something bit the back of her ruff – although not hard enough to break the skin – and pulled her into the air, out of the three's folds crowding around her.

Faith squirmed, uncomfortable with the feeling of dangling in the air. Eevee were not meant to fly through the air, versatile as they were.

"Stop that," came a muffled order. It was Themis. She obeyed, and the Golbat put her down a bit away from the three.

Her teammate's rescue turned out to be useless when the three Eeveelutions came to her anyways. "Hey," Larry the Jolteon protested, bounding through the grass. "Let the lady decide!"

"Pot calling the kettle black," Themis replied back, not at all intimidated by the electric type. She was on the same team as Sekhmet, the easily irritated Luxio. A Jolteon was nothing. "You're the ones shoving the choice down her throat. Let _her_ make the decision when _she_ wants."

Faith smiled. Just the words she wanted to say.

"Back off," Moe snapped at her. "This is an Eeveelution-only talk, Golbat."

"Bite me," Themis snapped back.

Moe the Flareon took that as an invitation and lunged. Themis retaliated with a few wing attacks before rising a bit above where the fire-type could reach, taunting him and shooting some confuse rays into his eyes. She then screamed and stumbled out of the air when Larry hit her wings with a thunder shock.

"Don't!" Faith shrieked. She rammed her head into Moe with a quick attack, but he shook her off easily.

"Hey, that's our teammate you're ganging up on there," called Neptune's voice.

Before the three Eeveelutions could jump on the fallen Themis, Helios popped in, grabbed the Golbat, and then teleported out of the danger zone, next to a silent Frejya.

Moe laughed, flexing his muscles. "Oh, and you're going to keep us from what?" he said mockingly. "Dancing?"

Faith frowned. "Don't insult my teammate," she told him, not liking any of them as much as she had initially.

Helios raised a hand in her direction. "I'll be fine, Faith," he said, polite as usual. "But thank you."

And then he suddenly spun around and fired a confusion attack at Moe, who yowled. He didn't look too hurt, but he looked even madder. "You little-"

A stream of bubbles fired his way made the Flareon replace his words with yelps of pain as the projectiles burst. Faith looked back to see Neptune and Sekhmet glaring down at the Eeveelutions. "You want to test your luck?" the Prinplup asked menacingly. Sekhmet growled, her dark blue fur bristling and her claws sparking with electricity.

Unfortunately, Curly and Larry did. The Jolteon charged into Sekhmet's side with a cry of outrage, a near-invisible blur in his incredible speed. The Vaporeon threw himself onto Neptune, intent on pounding and tanking him out. Moe got back to his feet and joined his fellow Eeveelutions in battle, adding his strength to the fight.

It was too bad for them that the rest of their team didn't just sit back idly. The Eeveelutions were attacked from all sides, heckled by tackles, returns and pounds until they had to retreat, too outnumbered to do anything.

By then their trainers decided to intervene at the brawl going on, cutting it off before it got to round two. "You're a good trainer," the collector told Dawn when everyone had settled down.

Dawn got suspicious. He hadn't even seen her in a proper battle, yet he was complimenting her on her skills as a trainer. This felt a bit like someone trying to butter her up and get her into an amicable mood. Her hand tightened slightly as she waited for him to reveal exactly what he wanted. "Say, I don't suppose you're interested in selling your Eevee to me, are you?"

. . . That should have been an obvious request, she supposed. Dawn shook her head. "She's not for sale."

Faith smiled at that.

* * *

A long time ago, Crasher Wake – then Markus Wake, just a college student with a scholarship from being on the wrestling team and also being a good trainer – had been friends with a hyperactive blond named Adrian who had dreamed of becoming big, just like he did. They bonded well over their ambitious dreams.

One day, when drunk at a local bar, they had decided to cut their palms with a bottle Adrian had accidently broken while running around inside, as usual. Using the blood from the cuts, they had sworn to be blood brothers. "And when we have," Adrian had hiccoughed. "Eggs -"

"Kids," Markus had corrected, because drunk or not even he knew better than that.

"Kids," Adrian had agreed. "I'll send them to you so you can" – hiccough – "you can teach them like a badass mentor. And versa vice. Er, Vicer verce. Um . . . ." he gave up after finding that it was too much effort to think clearly through his words. "Right?"

"Yeah," Markus had agreed in a slur, before slumping and laying his face against the cold surface of the table. His drool mixed with the spilt beer, and the next day he woke up with a killer hangover and a throbbing cut on his hand that had barely scabbed over.

A few years later, Markus became a pro-wrestler. Back then, Pastoria had been one of the poorer cities in the Sinnoh region, lacking important infrastructure and suffering in poverty and grime. Almost all of his earnings from back then went to support his hometown by funding afterschool projects and sport clubs where kids would get opportunities to actually find meaning in their otherwise underachieving lives. As he got better and more famous, he made more money which went to help out more areas in the city, like creating small battle clubs, or making jobs to clean up the city.

It wasn't until he became Pastoria's Gym Leader, however, that he really began making differences. With the power he had not only as a gym leader but also a famous celebrity, he had a lot more influence and say in how the city was run. And he utilized it fully.

He weeded out corruption in councils and the police force, and made sure that the city's money was used in good places. He held matches in honour of his city to bring in tourists, marketing himself as a product if he had to in order to add to Pastoria's appeals.

To make sure that the city itself could also be appealing in case he could no longer be Pastoria's face, he got the Great Marsh not only cleaned up, but reorganized into a Safari Zone and a National Park to secure a source of revenue from both travelling trainers and the League. Trainers would pay to catch Pokémon, which would breed easily in an environment well-maintained as a Safari Zone, and because the land was designated as a National Park they got funding from the government as well as the League to keep it clean and safe for both Pokémon and people.

More people began joining his cause to save his hometown, realizing that it wasn't impossible, that it could be done, and it became easier to do. Under his care and willingness to change for the better, Pastoria became better and better until it was the proud jewel it was now.

Around the same time, Adrian decided that he didn't like his legal name, so he had it replaced with his middle name, becoming Palmer Keizer, and never anyone mind the double '–er' sound.

Both of them stayed friends, but they had forgotten about the drunken promise. Or, at least Crasher Wake had. Palmer had remembered and told his son about it.

Apparently, Palmer didn't get the general rule of thumb that promises made while inebriated – much like marriages and engagements made while drunk – didn't count unless something was signed legally. "I can't be your mentor," he told the kid after he was asked. The kid had dropped by one day, and asked to meet him. Wake kept his office open for members of the community to drop by anytime. Often, the teens he worked with liked to come in and report on the progress of clubs, or seek advice.

It was considered dangerous, and the League constantly asked him to make the process a little more regulated in order to make it safer from any possible attempts at his life, but he refused. Paranoia and hesitation was running stagnant in the League like rotten blood. Someone needed to clean it out with fresh water, and face the challenge of fear with bravery. He kept office hours for anyone interested in a word to drop by, and it wasn't unusual for younger trainers to come in, seeking a chance to speak to their idol.

So the receptionist had allowed him in, unaware of the mental bombshell he would drop on Wake.

The blond boy's smile dropped. "But why not?" he whined, eyes squinting like Palmer's did when he complained.

The sight nearly gave him the shivers. Palmer's son was identical to him in every way, and it creeped Wake out. One Palmer – alright, that was tolerable. Two?

No. Just no. Sinnoh couldn't take that.

To distract himself from the sight, he cracked his neck, letting out a sound that was loud in the space of his office, a modestly sized room with pictures of his Pokémon and Pastoria's community, two of the most important things in his life.

Normally, he would let off fans near the border of rabid obsession off gently, but he knew Palmer's personality. The blond had always needed to be told bluntly for the point to get across. Granted, the man was much better now at politics – surprisingly so, but one didn't become the Tower Tycoon of the Battle Frontier without tact – but during the early days of their youth his perception had been duller than a cotton swab. Wake doubted that his son – Barry – would have sharpened yet in his young age.

"Because I don't have time," he said. It wasn't a lie. Between his wrestling career, his gym matches, his training and his community work he barely had enough time to rest and relax. His doctor was nagging him again on getting more sleep. "And why ask me? Your father should be the one you're asking."

The boy turned somber at the mention of his father. "Because he said that you were always one of his greatest rivals," he explained, absentmindedly kicking an unravelling bit of the carpet near his feet like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "And one day, I'm going to be better than him, but in order to do that-"

"Stop right there." Wake lifted one of his large hands. "I see where you're going."

"You do?" Palmer's son perked up.

He nodded. "And my answer stays the same. _I_ can't help you. Only you can help yourself with that. If you want your father to acknowledge that you've grown to be stronger than him, then you'll have to achieve that yourself."

Barry didn't give up, however. He continued to persist, finding different ways to say the same thing to achieve the same goal.

Finally, Wake sighed. There was one reason why Palmer always said that Wake was his greatest rival. "Kid," he said, cutting off the boy in the middle of another speech. The blond froze, and anxiously waited for him to speak.

"Have you ever lost a Pokémon of yours before?"

Barry's smile disappeared. "No," he said, and his hand began to rise to his pocket, where the shapes of a few Poké balls could be seen. The movement was reflexive. At the mere thought of his Pokémon and something bad happening to them the boy had been reaching for them.

A good human being to Pokémon, Wake guessed, but that was to be expected given his father.

"During my journey as a travelling trainer," he said, "I lost three Pokémon. That's not counting the Pokémon that died in accidents after I became a gym leader, or the ones that died of old age. My question is, if you lose a Pokémon of yours, will you know heartbreak? And yet, even as you mourn a part of you being lost forever, will you be able to find the will to continue on your journey, or will you break and give up?"

Palmer's boy looked troubled. "There's a fine line to walk," Wake said, wondering if this was the right talk to give. Knowing Palmer, he had probably avoided talking about issues like this. Wake would be surprised if he ever told the boy about the Pokémon that were no longer with him. "Your Pokémon are your partners, and unconditional love is something that can create a powerful bond. Yet if the Pokémon ever dies, what will happen to that bond? What will happen to the trainer?

"I'm not telling you to become a sociopath, or become distant from your Pokémon for the sake of not getting heartbroken," Wake added. "That's ridiculous, and cowardly. The grieving is a harsh, painful process, but you need to know that you move on eventually, and not obsess over it. Keep them in your heart, _never forget them_, but learn to move on when it happens."

It was probably advice that didn't make sense to Barry. It was advice that could only be taken flatly when the mind was not yet tainted with the unimaginable grief and shock that came from losing a Pokémon. And even when the advice was given, experiencing the actual pain would be something that could overcome all sorts of logic and rationale, possibly enough to drive one insane.

Wake hoped that he wouldn't have to know that pain.

"Did," Palmer's boy paused and swallowed. "Did my dad-"

"That," Wake cut him off, "is something you and he can discuss when you're both ready. It's not my place to share his story with you."

He nodded, and looking deep in thought, left after a polite farewell, much more subdued than before.

* * *

As soon as she got to Pastoria, she ran right to the Pokémon Center to get her Pokémon healed. While the receptionist took care of them, she connected online and messaged the dawn stone guy to let him know that she was in the city, at the center near Route 212. He dropped by in half an hour, and they made the trade quickly.

The dawn stone she'd traded the dusk stone for was cool and round, like most stones. It was a turquoise crystal with a six-point star of light in its midst, and the converging point of the crossing lights shifted when she turned it.

"It's so pretty," she said wistfully. She let Helios out and showed the gem to him. "When you're ready to evolve," she told him, "I'll give this to you."

Her Kirlia nodded. He understood why she didn't give it to him to use there and then. He'd only recently evolved from a Ralts into a Kirlia, and his body didn't have the resources that were necessary to go through such a transformation without severely crippling or weakening him, which could lead to adverse side effects in the future. Also, Neptune and Sekhmet still hadn't fully evolved yet, and to evolve before them seemed a little insulting and disrespectful to the senior members of the team.

Helios could wait. He could still bulk up on the protein, exercise his physical muscles and prepare for the day when he took up blades. He would have liked to shed the near-useless shell of a Kirlia and become a physical fighter rather than a mental fighter as soon as he could, but he understood that waiting was for the best.

Dawn put the stone away in the safety of item storage. "Moving on," she said to Helios, "do you want to fight in the Great Marsh Tournament?"

She needed to prepare for her next gym badge, but even if she'd come into the city, raring to go and completely ready to take on Crasher Wake, she still would have had to wait her turn. The Great Marsh Tournament's Junior Division was taking place, and the Pastoria Gym's arenas were being used to hold its matches.

* * *

"That's good, Starling!" Barry yelled from the tree he was climbing. "Allen, your turn!"

The bird flopped over to the place where his teammates were, too exhausted to even say something. The orange water weasel climbed to his paws, tails not lashing as usual. Behind him, Camarero's tail and mane flickered as the Ponyta swayed back and forth. Even Champ, stout and steady, was sleeping fitfully.

None of them minded it. They had been startled, yes, when the hyper blond had been unusually serious as he brought them all out for a heart-to-heart talk, but after hearing his speech – disorganized but every word filled with passion – they could have laid their lives down for him.

And how could they admit that a puny human boy was outlasting them in stamina? The shame would be too great to handle. While they had all taken turns, Barry had been up for the entire sessions, jumping and climbing.

Starling was keeping an eye out to ensure that he didn't fall and break his leg, but he wasn't sure if he could reach the boy in time in his current exhausted state. Neither was he sure if he could trust the Mime Jr., Billie Jean, to use her psychic powers to catch him. The only girl on the team currently, Billie Jean had followed Barry to Veilstone before he caught her, but she hadn't been very helpful during the gym challenge despite her type advantage. Unlike the other baby Pokémon on the team – a Tyrogue named Bruce – Billie Jean didn't try as hard. She preferred to make jokes or dance around, but didn't participate as much in physical activities like push ups, claiming that her strength lay in her mentality and not her muscles.

That, he thought, wasn't an excuse to slack off on stamina building. Mental power or not, she wouldn't last two seconds if she didn't have the strength to fight for consciousness in her physical body.

Still, even she had been inspired by Barry's urging and extreme demonstrating, and so she was trying her best to copy the others. She wasn't very good at physical activities, but she gave quite the effort to mimic them.

They only stopped when a ranger passing by put an end to their training and gave Barry a mouthful. "Look at your Ponyta!" he yelled, gesturing at the flickering tail and mane. Camarero snorted and got to his hooves, only to nearly swerve and fall. "Take them to get some rest, right now!"

Barry apologized to them the entire way, but they waved it off. Every single one of them had joined him because his will had shone through like the sun. They wanted to be able to keep up with that, and this was nothing.

"Hey," Allen nudged Camarero at night. They were out of their Poké balls, sore muscles rubbed with some kind of sharp smelling balm that was supposed to help with the pain. Their trainer, eyes drooping in exhaustion and all, had rubbed them in sore spots carefully before slumping into his bed, not even bothering to take a shower.

Barry was unconscious, as were the others, but the Buizel wanted someone to talk to, even for a few minutes, to distract himself from the pain of his aching muscles before he became too exhausted to stay conscious.

"Huh?" the Ponyta looked at him with eyes heavy from need of sleep. He wouldn't be able to talk long. "What?"

"Remember what Barry told us?" he asked. "How he was going to take us to be the best, and pull all of us through no matter what?"

". . . I _was_ with him longer than you were, you know."

Before Allen could take insult at that, the Ponyta tossed his head. "Yeah, I remember. And before you ask? I don't think he means it. I _know_ he does."

"That's not what I was going to ask," Allen protested, face burning in embarrassment from having his thoughts guessed so easily.

Camarero didn't buy it. "Really? Then what were you going to ask me?"

". . . Good night."

The Ponyta shook his fiery mane, taking care to not set anything on fire. Before Barry he had been a frustrated boy colt ignored by the stallions, taunted by fellow age mates. He could have gone farther than where he was – he knew he could. Every day, he tried to get out and away from the herd and every day, he failed. But he never gave up.

When he first saw Barry, Camarero's impression of him had been that he was crazy. Wandering around with a grass type for protection in an area with fire types? Crazy.

Granted, he also had a Starly with him, flying high above the air to keep an eye on things, but Barry had reminded him of naïve kids from the city. The rich, polished ones with no experience.

In a way, Barry hadn't had any experience. He was good at running, but he lacked that finesse of humans who actually knew what they were doing. He'd been gangly, slightly awkward and odd.

But he hadn't given up, and that was what had slowed Camarero down enough to really see the boy and hear what the Turtwig and Starly had to say about their human. And then he had stopped running altogether and allowed Barry to catch him. He took the name Camarero and became the third member of Barry's team, and received a promise that he would never be taken off the team unless Camarero himself wanted to be off.

Camarero wasn't very good at conducting and absorbing fire – not as good as his sire and brood mates, anyways. He was better at running, but he found that it didn't help him in battle as much as he would have liked.

That didn't matter to Barry.

So Camarero wasn't going to leave this boy. He was going to help get this boy to his dreams.

"That kid's going to go far," he told Allen. "And he's going to take us all along for the ride, in front-row seats."

The water type frowned. "What does that even mean?"

Camarero shrugged. "Ask Champ. I heard him say it once."

* * *

The tournament in Pastoria was a small, private one, exclusively for those with four badges or under. It was hosted by the Great Marsh to attract trainers. Still, the organizers of the event wanted to make it as official as possible, so they had several upper tier rules in place.

One of them was the limited move pool rule. Since it would be unfair for certain Pokémon – like normal and dragon types – who were versatile and could throw out a dizzying combination of moves, there was a rule that restricted the number of moves a Pokémon could use in battle. Pokémon could use a maximum of four different moves in a match, and no more.

Moves could be determined while in the tournament, or, in more hardcore cases, had to be chosen beforehand. The Great Marsh tournament demanded that trainers get their moves chosen beforehand – to better test their skills as a trainer – and so, psychics were going around 'tying' moves and limiting the move pool.

Dawn informed her psychic – a cheerful Jynx that glomped Helios when she saw him – of the moves she wanted to use, and waited while the blonde sorceress worked her magic. When the icy psychic finished, Dawn thanked her politely before she took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding.

It would be the first tournament both Dawn and Barry would enter. Since she was near the front of the bracket and he the back, if they reached the finals they'd be against each other.

_If_ they reached each other.

Both of them swore to meet each other at the finals. "I'm gonna win!" Barry declared.

"That's what you always say," Dawn reminded him, confident that it would be her victory against his. Every battle she'd had with him, she and her Pokémon had won. There wouldn't be anything different about this one, she told herself.

The Pastoria Gym, for the occasion, allowed for the tournament to make use of their many arenas. Force fields were up, microphones were given to trainers so that their orders wouldn't be drowned out, and people filled the stands, cheering on their favourite battlers as the voices of commentators rang over the din of crashing Pokémon and shouting people.

Even if she'd been expecting it, it was still nerve-wracking.

The elimination rounds were done through the use of two Pokémon each. She didn't have to announce just which of her Pokémon she chose to use, just that she used two. She could choose any of the six she had with her based on what her opponent had.

That turned out to be her luck, when she was facing against a man who sent out a Gyarados. A _Gyarados_. Themis, released into the field without prior knowledge on her foe, had been surprised at the sight and cowered slightly, dipping in the air as her wings stiffened in fear.

"It's alright," said Dawn as the huge water dragon roared and thrashed for a dramatic, intimidating entrance. "Fly around, use confuse ray but stay away. They're mostly physical attackers."

A bit more confident at her words, Themis began to fly, skimming through the air like an agile acrobat. The Gyarados, thrown into confusion at the flashing lights, tried to follow what it thought to be the purple bat only to crash into the ground. Angered, it began thrashing without following the orders of its trainer.

Themis, safely above, flapped her wings and waited until the Gyarados had tired out before leaping forwards with a screech. The Gyarados flinched, and then found its eyes crossing over when Themis flashed the lights to its face again.

In the end the water dragon ended up knocking itself out. Dawn sighed in relief when her opponent sent out a second Gyarados.

What.

Themis tried to do the same once more, but the foe was better prepared this time. "Ice fang!"

"Fly up!" Dawn shouted. Themis flapped, leathery wings scrambling to grab the air and push herself up, but the Gyarados could fly, too. Not as well as birds or Golbat, but well enough.

The dragon, twisting, ascended after Themis, and with a lunge grabbed her with icy wings. Both Dawn and Themis shrieked before the Golbat went limp.

The Gyarados spat her out, and Dawn, shaken, recalled her. Once Themis – simply unconscious, no permanent harms done – was back in her ball, however, she was mad. Two Gyarados? Two? Who sent out _two_ consecutive Gyarados? Who _had_ two Gyarados in the first place?!

She sent out Sekhmet, who was the obvious choice. This time the Gyarados was the one to cower from the intimidate ability radiating from the other side of the arena, and Sekhmet smirked as she realized just what types her foe was.

"Sekhmet, charge-spark combo."

The Luxio's claws crackled, and the electricity sparking travelled to cover her flanks and fur. The Gyarados, at its trainer's shouts to finish the electric type before it got to it, began to build up some kind of bluish energy in its opened jaws.

Sehkmet was marginally faster. She ran forwards, managed to avoid being hit by the orb of draconic energy spat her way, and then smashed herself into the dragon's side. The Gyarados bellowed in pain and thrashed its long tail angrily.

"Sekhmet, get on the Gyarados and use spark and bite at the same time!"

Her Luxio eyed the still-thrashing Gyarados. One wrong move, and she could get badly hurt.

But Dawn knew that, and still she asked Sekhmet to do this because she trusted her. Because she believed Sekhmet could do this.

And Sekhmet knew it too. She lunged forwards, covering herself with a spark before she dug her claws into the scales covering the Gyarados to grab and clamber onto it. It thrashed harder, and she had to bite down on the thing to not be bucked off.

Then it started ramming itself into the ground in an effort to get her off. Sekhmet felt her skull rattle each time it impacted the ground, and knew that any second it could be her smashed head-first into the ground, but she didn't let herself get ripped off the Gyarados. Instead, she inched forwards, grabbing the scales with her claws and biting other parts of it so she could move, bit by bit, closer to its head while releasing electricity into it.

Dawn saw the Gyarados smashing itself onto the ground. At intervals of roughly five seconds, it would rush the ground, trying to scrape Sekhmet off of its body.

She had to time this well. As soon as the Gyarados had slammed the ground, she shouted. "Sekhmet, charge towards the head!"

Sekhmet ripped off a scale she'd been biting from the Gyarados, unhooked her claws and leapt straight at the head. The Gyarados turned, mouth open, and one of her hind paws landed in it. The dragon clamped down on it immediately, but by then she had her two front paws braced on its face, one on its nose and the other hooked around the dark blue crest. Her claws, digging in as much as they could, gripped her on.

She ran the spark across her fur, and the Gyarados suddenly found itself with a face – and mouth – full of electricity. Screaming, it opened its mouth and Sekhmet yanked her paw out.

"Climb!" That was all Dawn needed to say. Sekhmet clambered, much like a cat dangling from a ledge. She managed to scamper on so that it was now her hind paws braced on its nostrils, and twisted her body around the middle point of the crest. She bit down on the middle crest, and then ran another spark. "Charge, and then keep up the spark!"

The Gyarados began thrashing again, bucking and twisting in an effort to throw off its foe, but Sekhmet clung on, and continued to run electricity throughout her body. It might have been stronger if she ran at him, but the spark's constant contact was enough. Eventually, unable to take the electricity burning and radiating from the top of its head, as well as being worn out by its own thrashing, the Gyarados fell unconscious. Sekhmet, after a few more bites to the back of the water type's head to make sure her foe was really fainted, got off smugly. She was hurt herself, rattled and a bit shaky on her paws now that she was back on solid ground, but she was definitely smug at her victory.

After that match, the rest of the trainers were almost easy to get through. Almost.

Her Pokémon were paralyzed, burned, confused, poisoned and hurt a lot of times as they went through the foes, but they healed by machines after each match whether they had participated in the battle or not, and they were more than ready to take on whatever challenge came next.

Sekhmet and Themis weren't the only ones to fight hard. Frejya was her usual unnerving stoic self, beating the other Pokémon while taking hits herself. Helios made competitors expect and prepare for special attacks only to take them off guard by hitting hard with return and then skipping out of harm's way with a teleport. Neptune was his usual, hardcore self, managing to make opponents lose their composure with his personality, even in the midst of a battle. Faith, much like Themis, utilized sneak attacks and treachery to win her battles, boldly harassing opponents much bigger than her.

By the end of the day, she was one of the two finalists. The other, as promised, was Barry.

_"Since our matches have finished sooner than expected," _the announcer called, "_the final match of the Great Marsh Tournament will take place in twenty minutes! Barry Keizer, son of the famous Tower Tycoon Palmer, versus Dawn Steele, daughter of Johanna Steele, top coordinator extraordinaire_!"

She grimaced. Was announcing their parents really necessary?

Barry, sitting on the worn, backless seats placed in the stuffy waiting room, made a face at that part of the announcements. They were both used to it, having grown up in the shadows of their parents, but still. They were making a name for themselves here, and the announcer could have respected that.

"You ready?" he asked her as he stood up, beginning to get ready for the finals. He snagged a cookie from the – sad – selection of snacks laid out for competitors. Dawn did the same, and although she knew that the cookie tasted like trash and not at all like what a proper cookie should – buttery, rich and sweet in a good way, not the cheap fatty taste this one had – she still ate it, and let the sugar run through her system like a crazy five year old.

"You bet," she replied, brushing off her oily fingers on her jeans. She had to wash them anyhow, and a little oil from a cheap cookie wasn't going to ruin these.

"See you on the other side," he said, just a little too serious to actually be serious, and then he made his way down the hall where he would head to his side of the arena.

"See you," she said in reply before beginning to hurry to where she was fairly sure her entrance would be. She hoped she wouldn't get lost.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxio), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Faith (Eevee), Frejya (Buneary)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts)

* * *

AN: Happy Valentine's Day! Due to RL, this will be my V-Day update. Yes, instead of romance you get a chapter in a story where the most romantic things seem to be a male Kirlia who every female psychic seems to crush on. Happy Single's Awareness Day.

You know you don't bike much when you say to yourself, 'hey, what's that stick thing you kick at on your bike to make it stand still?' I had to look up bike parts on Wikipedia and check out a few pages before I realized it was called a kickback.

Camarero: According to Bulbapedia, Barry's Rapidash in Platinum starts off with flash fire as its ability, but changes to run away all of a sudden. Not sure if that's a mistake on Nintendo or Bulbapedia's part, too lazy to take a trace Pokémon to a battle against him so I'm just writing it as Camarero having run away. In this verse it's sort of useful - it lets you dodge attacks better. That's probably going to apply for illuminate as well.


	17. Complacency has No Place

A.S.107

September 10th

_Great Marsh Junior Tournament. I don't like what I'm letting myself be. I'm changing that._

* * *

The finals, unlike the rounds before, would allow both sides to use four out of the six Pokémon they had on hand. Like previous rounds, there were to be no switching unless it was invoked by moves like u-turn and baton pass, or forced switches like whirlwind.

Dawn walked into her spot at the end of the arena, the largest one available in the Pastoria Gym for the sake of a good show. She had the microphone attached to her head with the large gear that made her feel like an alien, and the volunteer staff guy with her quickly explained how it would work.

"The force field won't let you directly release your Pokémon into the arena," he was saying. "So you need to choose four Pokémon now, and place them into the spots here," he pointed to the panel where four empty grooves the size of the lower halves of Poké balls were. "And when you want to release your first Pokémon, you just have to press the button that corresponds with the groove on the panel over there, and it'll do it for you right into the field. This also lets us monitor the status of your Pokémon, so when your Pokémon faints the machine will automatically recall it for you. If you want to return your Pokémon before the machine returns it, that'll automatically be considered a forfeit from the match. You have one minute to choose the next Pokémon after you either forfeit or recall a fainted Pokémon, and the time will be shown by the timer next to the grooves. Any questions?"

That was a lot of information, but Dawn got it all. "No, I'm good," she said. The guy nodded, wished her luck and hurried out, leaving her alone to think.

She had to choose now? There wouldn't be any choosing along the way?

"Oh, and one more thing!"

Dawn turned around to see the guy, who looked a little more frazzled. "The Pokémon in the top left corner," he said, pointing to the grooves, "is going to be the first one automatically released, so choose your lead and put it in there, okay?"

He left before she could even answer. With the people as disorganized as they were, Dawn thought it was pretty incredible that they were actually ahead of schedule. She'd been to enough of her mom's contests to know that organized events almost never ran on time.

But back to her Pokémon. A lead Pokémon – who was a good lead to start with? She couldn't switch out, and neither could Barry. If she chose right, she could get the upper hand and the momentum to sweep through the rest of his team. If she chose wrong, well, it would give her quite a handicap and make the match a struggle to win.

What Pokémon would Barry use? Probably not his two baby Pokémon, not in the finals. He may have been a good trainer, but she doubted that he would use the two newest, arguably weaker members of his team in the last rounds. He would want to put up a fight.

So that left the four she was most familiar with him using. He wouldn't start off with Champ, not his wall and starter. He was best saved for later, to wear out her Pokémon and then take them out. Themis would be the best against him, able to take grass moves like they were nothing and retaliate.

Sekhmet was strong against both Allen and Starling. Technically, sending her out first would be the best option, since she was strong against half of his team, neutral against one and resisted only by the last.

But that was too obvious. Also, she couldn't risk losing Sekhmet earlier on in the match exactly because she was that important.

Neptune? He was needed to deal with the threat of Camarero, the speedy horse. The Ponyta was fast, and against neutral foe could easily wear them out before moving in for the finish. Neptune could easily counter him by setting up bubble mines all over the field and crippling his speed. To cover this large arena, though, he'd need a lot of water. He needed to be held in reserve.

She was left with a choice between Faith, Helios and Frejya. Barry knew her just as well as she knew Barry. He would expect her to use . . .

Either Frejya or Faith, since they were the most versatile type.

But Helios could teleport and take away the momentum of whatever speedster Barry sent out first, and wear them out before fighting them. The arena was big – Helios could teleport to a lot of different places. Granted, he still had to attack, but he brought mobility onto the table as a viable option.

She placed the Kirlia's ball into the top left groove, and then filled the rest with the Poké balls of her other three chosen. Then, she waited until she heard the announcer's voice starting the match.

Across her spot, she could see the large field with dirt, small bodies of water and even a few scattered plant life, and in the far distance at the other end she could see Barry's small figure, and the shock of pale yellow hair on his head. She waved, and saw that he waved back.

_"Begin!" _the referee shouted, and the machines on both sides reacted to a button pressed.

The first Pokémon were released immediately. Helios landed on the field, while Barry's chosen lead materialized in the air.

Starling.

Helios flinched at the intimidate that met him right at his entrance, but took a deep breath and a fighting stance.

The commentators began talking almost immediately. **"And it looks like Barry starts off with his Staravia! A physical matchup against the less defensive Kirlia, a good choice!"**

**"But that applies to Dawn's Kirlia as well," **the other commentator pointed out**. "Staravia have relatively low special defense, and to top it off, that intimidate won't do much, since Kirlia are special attackers."**

**"I think you're forgetting that Dawn's Kirlia's been pretty good with physical attacks so far in the tournament. But you're right – they're mostly special attackers. Maybe she's been saving the special attacks until now."**

Oh, if they only knew. She could practically see Barry smirking at the logical but incorrect assumption made by the commentator. She'd told him about Helios wanting to be a Gallade back in Veilstone, and about what he had to do to make the transition easier on him.

"Quick attack!" Barry shouted. "And then hit him with your wings!"

He was closing in on her, where Starling would have the advantage with close physical attacks. Helios could try to match that – a difficult feat, given that Staravia were pretty strong with physical attacks – or back out and keep his distance.

"Teleport, Helios, and confusion!" Back out and focus on special attacks, for now, she decided.

Starling, boosted with speed, dove at Helios, who narrowly dodged by pulling out at the last second. He reappeared a quarter of the arena behind Starling's back, and threw a lump of glowing light towards Starling.

Dawn grinned when it hit. Starling, though, just shook it off and turned to lunge towards the direction Helios stood in. "Rinse and repeat, Helios! But this time, get a little closer!"

Helios teleported out of range, appearing behind Starling – much closer this time, only a few meters apart from the bird – and readying a confusion when Starling suddenly yanked his entire body and turned it so that he was swooping towards Helios, much faster than either of them had expected.

"Get out of there!" Dawn shouted, and Helios, snapping out of his brief flare of fear in the face of a sudden attack, tried, but he couldn't teleport in time.

"Quick attack!"

Starling put on a burst of speed, and smashed straight into Helios. He battered at the psychic's head with his strong wings and Helios cried out in pain before trying to hit back with return.

It didn't do as much damage as Dawn needed. Starling took to the skies, and Helios huffed, holding his rather limp right arm. His eyes flashed, and Starling jerked midair as a blue glow took a hold of him. Awkwardly, the Staravia was struggling in the air as a psychic force kept him from escaping up.

But Helios was struggling as well. To get used to physical attacks, Helios had trained hard, but that had led to neglecting in training his special attacks. The confusion was weak, and it was taking all he had to just hold Starling. He couldn't move, or pull Starling down, or move in to attack physically himself.

**"Well, folks,"** said one of the commentators as she tuned in to listen to what they were saying now. **"Looks like we've got a stalemate. The Staravia can't really do much when he's stuck like that, but you know, at the same time, the Kirlia looks like it can't do much more than keep it there. No way to attack or anything, makes this an interesting but fragile balance we've got. Anything could tip it either way, don't you think so?"**

**"Absolutely, Josh," **said the other guy. **"But I think this is something that the Staravia has an advantage with. The Kirlia's holding it down for now, but, well, it's only a matter of time until it gets tired, and then the Staravia gets to go free and face a worn-out opponent."**

**"Well, I don't know about that. The Staravia could also get tired, and then the Kirlia's free to drag it down to the ground where it's easier to attack."**

Dawn tuned them out again and tried to think of a way to break this stalemate. Could she get Helios to use magical leaf? But that would make him lose his concentration, and it wouldn't do much to hurt Starling.

The audience was cheering on their favourites. Some were calling for Starling to break loose from the psychic hold, and others were yelling encouragements to Helios to not give up.

"_C'mon_, Starling!" Barry bellowed from the other side, and Dawn swore that the arena shook from his shouting, the sound dwarfing the audience in volume. "You can _do_ this!"

Starling strained, pulling against the force holding him back. He moved an inch forwards, and then another. Helios, panicked at his foe's movement, yanked as hard as he could with his mind, and stopped the advance.

And that annoyed Starling. He had to break out of this, had to soar into the skies where he belonged. He had to show Barry what he was capable of, how he was going to _live_.

The crowd temporarily went quiet as Starling began shining with a bright white light, united in an intake of breath and a gasp of surprise, before they began cheering even more loudly at the sight unfolding before them like a scene from a movie. Starling's wings grew, nearly doubling in size, and his entire body sharpened and expanded.

Helios took the chance to throw a confusion at the evolving bird, but when the light faded away and Starling was in the air, no longer a Staravia but a Staraptor, it was clear that the attack hadn't done much.

Starling broke out of the psychic grip, and then turned to dive-bomb Helios. The psychic teleported the first time, managing to get himself halfway across the arena, but Starling simply rose into the air out of confusion's reach. Confusion was a relatively weak psychic attack to begin with, and the distance, along with Helios not having worked on his special attacks, didn't help matters at all.

"Double team," Barry ordered, and three copies of Starling sprung out from the predator bird. Now there were four Staraptor staring down menacingly from the air.

She could see Helios shake from the nervousness and exhaustion. "It's alright," she said, even if they both knew that a good hit from Starling could easily put Helios out of commission at this point. "Teleport out of reach every time," she said. "Just wear him out, and dodge the hits."

Helios nodded. Wait until the bird wore himself out. That was smart, that was good, that was something he could do. Evolution having taken a toll on his stamina, the newly-evolved Staraptor would eventually collapse, and all he had to do was stall.

Starling and his copies swept down, and Helios teleported as fast as he could, focusing more on getting out of his current location than getting far for now. He landed on the ground a few meters away behind the nearest Starling. Now he had a few seconds where he could catch his breath and teleport to the next place, further away.

Or so he'd thought. What he hadn't expected was for that Starling to twist in the air, much quicker and smoother than he had before.

Faced with a Staraptor charging him, sharp eyes blazing with determination, Helios instinctively raised both of his arms to block the hit, and screamed in pain when his already-injured right arm took the majority of the hit. The force Starling put in behind that attack threw him backwards, where he hit the ground headfirst.

Starling didn't let up. He followed up with a quick attack to the gut, and then struck Helios with consecutive wing attacks.

Miraculously, Helios was still conscious. Blue psychic light pulsed as he tried to fight off the Staraptor so he could teleport away without having to pull his attacker along, but Starling, having grabbed tightly onto Helios with his talons, didn't let go, and easily knocked him out with the third wing attack.

The machine beeped as a red light arced out towards the two before it returned, signalling that Helios had been recalled.

On the field, Starling let out a war-shriek that had the crowd watching from the bleachers go wild in excitement. He looked like he could go on all day.

In response to him, Dawn sent out Sekhmet. Starling was a Staraptor, known to be powerful and reckless. They weren't birds that went down easily.

On field, her Luxio let out a yowling battle cry. Starling flinched slightly, but he shook it off.

And then he dissolved into red light. Barry had recalled him manually.

"Go, Champ!" He sent out the worst Pokémon he had to send against Sekhmet.

Dawn winced when she saw what Barry had done. He'd kept Starling out on the field, always intending on returning the bird. And of course he would have returned Starling – evolution took a lot out of the Pokémon.

But why return him immediately when he could wait to see what her next choice would be? Why not wait, let her reveal her choice, and then send out the best counter to her choice?

"Charge," Dawn said. She wished that she had chosen leer as one of the moves to be used in the tournament. She had chosen to put in swagger over bite, and now slightly regretted it. She hadn't once had a good chance to use swagger throughout the tournament. "Then spark."

Her idea was to go for spark, and hopefully paralyze Champ. Then Sekhmet would go for bite, and hope that the chance of flinching, as well as paralysis, would stop the Grotle from being effective against her as she whittled down his health.

Sekhmet stared down Champ confidently as she generated electricity and wrapped herself with it, from her ears to the tip of her claws. She knew that this wasn't the best type matchup, but she could handle this. She could take down the grass wall.

She began charging towards the Grotle, letting out a roar nearly as deep as a Luxray's.

But Champ didn't flinch. He was easygoing by nature, something a lot of Pokémon seemed to mistake as docility and incapability to fight.

They couldn't have been more wrong. Champ was good at battling. He liked battling. He had his own style for it. Not fast and furious and agile, but slow, steady and outlasting.

And after all that training they'd done, after all of Barry's Pokémon had re-evaluated their values and goals and re-pledged themselves to their trainer, they refused to go down. This was the day when Barry won over Dawn.

"Absorb!"

Sekhmet barreled into Champ, who took the hit that came his way with a grunt of pain before he retaliated with an absorb attack. Green tendrils tied themselves around Sekhmet and yanked away health from her into him. Snarling at how he undid her work – and with her own health, at that – she tried to jump back and very nearly tripped over uneven ground.

"Razor leaf!"

"Spark – block!"

The electricity from the spark attack wrapped around Sekhmet to act as a protective barrier, but not before a few leaves managed to get a few good hits in.

"Circle towards him, don't charge head-on!"

Sekhmet, snarling, ran around the grass tortoise. Champ began moving to make sure that he would face her, but Sekhmet threw in a few feints in both directions, making him hesitate, before she managed to get near him from his back. She hit the back of his shell, and reared her head back to angrily bite into him.

"Razor leaf!"

The leaves shot out from the shrubs Champ had on his back and struck Sekhmet straight in the face. Yowling in pain, she reared back away as Champ turned around in time to throw a few more absorb bulbs onto her.

Dawn clenched her fists. "Bite, Sekhmet!"

Sekhmet clawed at the last of the green absorbs to get their traces off of her body and then dashed directly at the Grotle, reaching to hurt the grassy tortoise and knock it out. She leapt, jumping to reach above Champ's head.

"Razor leaf, then bite!"

The leaves hurtled down at her just as she bit at the back of Champ's neck. She bit down, only to release him as she cried out at the hurtling leaves. Champ took the opportunity to bite back, and Sekhmet's cries got shriller when he bit her and dragged her down by her left hind leg. He began backing up, still biting Sekhmet's back limb, and Sekhmet had no choice but to awkwardly hop after him, screeching all the while.

"Spark or charge, Sekhmet, run as much electricity as you can!" Dawn shouted, worried for her Luxio. Sekhmet, gritting her teeth against the pain of jaws on her leg pulling her in a direction and angle no Luxio leg should be forced into, charged as much electricity within herself as she could before releasing it over herself in a strong, crackling spark.

Champ didn't let go. He winced in pain, but he bit down harder at the pain, making Sekhmet scream and lash out with more electricity. The electricity crackled and danced in his face, and he thought that he would go blind by the bright lights and searing heat, but he wasn't going to let the Luxio win. Against their first battle with each other she'd been the one to retreat, and he wasn't going to let her drive him off now when he'd only grown stronger.

The audience began shouting when, for the second time during the match, a Pokémon began glowing bright white in the arena. Sekhmet, frantic now, began to claw and kick to the best of her abilities, trying to get loose before Champ could finish his change.

She couldn't. Although her tail and second hind leg lashed out at his face without mercy, Champ kept a tight hold on Sekhmet until he was finished evolving. When he was done, he lifted his head to lift the leg he was holding high in the air, and Sekhmet lost her balance. She hissed angrily at him, not letting her electricity dissipate even if it did nothing anymore.

In response Champ – almost mercilessly – slammed Sekhmet down onto the ground. While the Luxio, dazed, tried to regain her balance, he unleashed a storm of razor leaves down at her. When the razor leaves stopped, Sekhmet was motionless.

"You did great, Sekhmet," she said as Sekhmet was automatically returned. That loss was bad for her – now she had to deal with Allen _and_ Camarero, and that was not counting Champ.

And she had a good idea of what Barry would do. He would keep Champ in until she sent out her next Pokémon, and then send out the one with the better chances. Champ as a Torterra was huge, and that wasn't the only thing about the new form that intimidated her. Champ as a Turtwig had been cute. Champ as a Grotle had been friendly-looking.

Champ as a Torterra was absolutely terrifying.

She could dawdle for the one minute she had to make her decision, but she knew that wouldn't make much of a difference. And there was still one Pokémon she had that could stand a chance and get her the momentum against the rest of Barry's team.

Dawn thought hard about the choices she had to make, the mistakes she _had_ to avoid, the chances she had, and sent a prayer to Mespirit as her timer told her she had five seconds left to make a decision.

On the field, Themis materialized with a screech. She noticed that Champ had evolved, and although she grinned at him, she grimaced within. He'd gotten the best of her before in battle, forcing her to withdraw even before evolution.

Themis flexed the frame of her wings. She needed to repay him for that. While he was bigger and tougher – and harder to take down – than before, she held the advantage in agility and speed. She wouldn't be careless this time.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Champ retaliated with a razor leaf, but the Golbat skipped midair, easily dodging the leaves hurtling her way.

Champ grunted, and more leaves flew out. "Themis!" Dawn called, seeing how Champ had to throw the leaves from the outer edges of his tree's bush. "I need you to hide in the leaves of his tree!"

Themis didn't flinch, or hesitate, or look afraid at the idea of heading directly towards the opponent's Cackling, she flew to Champ's back and dove straight into the branches on his back's tree where she could begin wreaking havoc while being safe.

Before she could start, Champ dissolved into red light and was recalled. Themis dropped slightly, suddenly finding herself lacking a roost before she rebalanced herself in the air. Both of them watched as Barry sent out his next Pokémon, which was Camarero.

Smart choice. Camarero would either take out or put a good fight up against Themis, and leave Allen fresh for Neptune.

"Camarero, flame wheel!"

"Confuse ray!"

The Ponyta neighed, and reared on his hind legs. In response, Themis swept in closer and shot a blinking, flashing light in the fire type's face.

The horse nearly fell from the confuse ray, but with a tremendous amount of effort threw himself forward into a fire-enshrouded roll. Themis tried to fly up and out of the range she'd put herself in for the sake of the confuse ray, but Camarero used the momentum of the 'wheel' to jump up, still hidden from view by flames. Themis crashed to the ground, and was stomped by a glowing Camarero.

Dawn nearly screamed as the stomp knocked out Themis. Acceleration of force by gravity, as well as the force that would have initially been put behind the stomp as Camarero landed would have been devastating. Themis would be hurt.

The crowd was cheering and laughing now, in awe that three evolutions would occur in the span of one match. If she wasn't battling against him, she would be in the crowd, whooping at the sight and cheering for the Pokémon that were evolving left right and center.

Battling against him, however, she was horrified.

On field, Camarero as a Rapidash threw his newly trailing mane and hoofed at the ground, snorting and sniffling the air with his newly enlarged nose.

"What did you do," Dawn tried to joke to calm her nerves as she recalled Themis. "Hype your Pokémon up on drugs so that they'd all evolve when you battled me?"

Barry shook his head, taking it seriously. "We trained," he said, almost too soft for the mike to catch. "We trained really hard, Dawn."

"I can see that," she said casually, but her heart raced. This was a bad situation, and she knew it. He'd not only taken out almost all of her Pokémon, but he'd done it while withdrawing and forfeiting his Pokémon after they evolved. She hadn't actually taken out a single one of his Pokémon.

Dawn wondered if he had outrun her and left her in the dust now, because that was how it seemed to be right then and there.

She let Neptune out, trying to keep the frantic feeling from overwhelming her. On the field, her Prinplup came out with his usual haughty look. The look faltered when he looked at his opponent and realized that Camarero was a Rapidash now, but he recovered his fumble quickly.

Now was the part where she had to be careful and preserve his strength and what advantage she had for the future match he would have to fight as well. "Bubble beam, but just load the bubbles with medium water, not too much."

Neptune blinked at her order, a bit confused. Camarero was now a Rapidash, clearly faster than he'd been as a Ponyta. It would have been better for him to load the bubbles with a lot of water, as much as he could so that the fire type would take more damage if he ran into the bubbles.

He nearly ignored her order and made his bubbles heavy with water, but at the last second adjusted it so that there was less water, figuring that she had a good reason. The bubbles surrounded him, forming the mines that would explode and release water before he narrowed their focus and sent them flying towards the fire type.

Before he was hit, Barry returned him, and replaced him with Allen, who took the bubbles and shook them off.

Neptune, realizing why Dawn had told him to use only a portion of the water, took a firm stance. He was indignant and a bit furious at the choice to send out a water type against him. Why not Champ? That would have made sense, and he could have gone down fighting (or just won, in his proud thoughts). But a water-type? That was an insult.

"Peck!" Dawn shouted. "He's the last one!"

"Quick attack!" Barry ordered. "One more, Allen!"

As soon as Dawn gave the command, he was attacking with angry pecks that aimed for soft spots where it would really hurt.

But Allen was fast, swift and equally determined. He hit Neptune with quick attacks before speedily backing away, and closed the distance with pursuits when Neptune let down his guard slightly. He dodged the hits Neptune dished out, or twisted to take it in the more well-defended areas of his body.

"Metal claw, push him!"

The next time Allen closed in, Neptune jabbed at him with glowing claws, grappling him and making sure that the other water type couldn't just slip away. Allen retaliated by whacking at Neptune with his paws and tail, but Neptune held on as he began to half-drag, half-shove him towards the area where his bubble mines were thickest so he could push Allen into them.

Allen flailed, and even managed to butt Neptune in the face with his head. Neptune hissed, but refused to let go, and instead pecked down at Allen's head. He was the better water type here, and he was going to prove it.

But Allen was thinking the same thing. He'd heard from Champ that Barry had never won against Dawn in battle, even before Allen joined the team, and he wasn't going to lose. Not to this chubby bird who seemed a little too proud of himself. He stilled, and then suddenly lashed out towards Neptune's eye with his paw.

Like any living creature would have done, Neptune instinctively closed his eyes to protect them from the sudden orange blur. Allen took the chance to punch him in his gut, and wiggle loose from Neptune's grip before turning around and taking a firm, fighting stance.

Dawn made a face. Type aside, Allen was a good matchup for Neptune. He was quick, and where Neptune was good with special attacks, Allen excelled in physical attacks. He also happened to be more agile on his feet. Even when the bubble mines around the field burst onto him, causing minimal harm, he used the moisture he could get from them to make himself slipperier.

"Water gun, follow with pursuit!" Barry shouted.

How to block this? "Bubble, metal!" Dawn shouted frantically.

Neptune spat out a stream of strong bubbles that exploded when the compressed burst of water Allen shot hit them, and in the midst of the water's spray lifted his flippers, glowing, to strike at Allen. The Buizel twisted out of their range before he spun and struck at Neptune, movement nearly a blur with speed from the extra quick attack he'd thrown in without Barry's command.

"Get close, Allen, and pursuit with quick attack!"

Neptune tried to back away like he usually did when an opponent tried to combat him in close quarters, but Allen simply sidled along, peppering quick hits and slipping away before Neptune could really hit him hard.

"Sorry, Neptune," Dawn apologized. "Stand your ground, thin bubble beam and metal claw."

Metal claws may have been Neptune's favourite method of subduing any enemies or threats because it was flashy, but his strong point was special attacks.

He gurgled, and then let loose a flurry of thin bubbles. They were thin, not laden with much water, but their purpose had less to do with attacking than shielding. The bubbles were to impair the visions of the foe, while Neptune, who would be used to the distorted sight, could attack without suffering from problems.

But Allen was a water type as well, and his species had developed to see in aquatic environments. The bubbles didn't hurt him very much, physically or visually. He stretched out and struck at Neptune, ignoring the bubbles.

Neptune parried Allen's punches, but a swing of his tail smacked him in his eyes. Dazed, he paused just enough to allow Allen to land a hit. Neptune let out an angry cry before slumping, cutting off his bubbles, when Allen smashed a hit on his throat.

The audience watched as the ref counted down, and cheered when Neptune, despite struggling, couldn't get back to his feet before the referee finished counting down.

Allen, extremely battered but still standing, gave a weak grin to Barry. He'd done his trainer proud, he knew, and the feeling that spread through his tired, hurting body was a good feeling. Barry wasn't dragging them through everything. He'd merely extended his hand, and they'd taken it before running along his side.

He sighed before he began glowing. The crowd gathered began screaming loudly, very loudly, but Allen didn't care, not at that moment.

Four out of four Pokémon evolving in a single battle. That had to be a record of some kind. Dawn recalled Neptune back and watched with a bit of helplessness as Allen grew into a Floatzel.

* * *

The Pokémon who participated in the finals were all rushed to the nearest Pokémon Center, hers because they'd been knocked unconscious, his because they were very well on the verge of collapse. They received their awards at the finishing ceremony with the two Pokémon that hadn't battled at their sides.

If it weren't for Frejya, Dawn was pretty sure that she would have taken this loss a lot less gracefully. When Dawn let the Buneary out to inform her that they made second place, the normal type had patted her knee with her ear and then stood tall, poker face in place. From her Dawn remembered her mom's lessons on taking losses gracefully, and drew the will to keep from letting disappointment and upset feelings show. Because of both Frejya and Dawn maturely taking the news, Faith took the cue to keep calm, polite and behaved.

She received a medal, a check for a modest sum of money, a bottle of vitamins and a TM. They were pretty generous for the second place winnings, and she took them with a genuine smile before falling back and clapping hard for Barry when he, Billie Jean and Bruce went up to the stage to accept the trophy with the Croagunk painted on its front.

Billie Jean actually nearly tripped when she jumped high, and Bruce had to catch her. Everyone let out an 'aw' sound to show that the display between the two baby Pokémon was adorable, and then the tournament was finished.

Barry stayed back to pick up his other prizes, and Dawn considered waiting for him before deciding to let him enjoy his time in the spotlight alone. She wanted to go to the center and make sure that her Pokémon were alright. She felt a little empty with only Frejya and Faith on her.

"Excuse me," she said to one of the volunteers of the tournament, a casually dressed guy that looked a few years older than her. "Do you know the directions to the nearest center?"

He looked at her, and then blinked. "Oh, you're the second place winner," he said. She gave him a small smile, not really having anything to say to that. "And, um, yeah, it's pretty easy to get to. Just step out of the gym, turn at Verchamps Street and walk north. You'll see the roof pretty soon – actually, you can't miss it, it's impossible to not notice."

Oh, good. As nice as Pastoria was – apparently – she didn't think she could take getting lost in it. She just wanted to get her Pokémon and go to sleep. "Thank you," she said, and began to turn away.

"Hey," he said, and she stopped. "You're a pretty good trainer. You did great up there."

She looked at him a little more closely than she had during the initial scan for someone to ask directions to. He was cute, tall with brown hair and a nice smile. He was _definitely_ older than her, but he was good looking, and not _too_ much older than her. Just a few years.

If only she was in a better mood. If only she didn't want to be with her Pokémon right now, to make sure they were alright and apologize for taking Barry too lightly. Dawn might have taken a risk of embarrassment and tried out flirting with an older guy, but she had urgent matters on her priorities.

"Thank you," she said, and then she left. A cute older guy noticing her was really flattering, but now wasn't the time for that.

She stepped out of the gym, and followed the volunteer's instructions. He was right – it really was impossible to not notice the center after five minutes of walking. It made sense that a center would be near a gym, in retrospect.

She didn't enjoy the fresh air of Pastoria, or the green view, or the people walking around with Pokémon. She walked straight into the center, and after showing the receptionist her trainer card to prove that she was, in fact, one of the contestants who had her Pokémon sent to the center, was told to wait because her Pokémon were going through some intense healing.

"It's not that they're seriously hurt," the nurse explained when Dawn panicked. "It's just that we're being thorough. Tournaments tend to heal Pokémon lightly, and while those are effective, they're a bit shallow because they have to be done quickly. We want to make sure that they didn't miss anything that might be harmful in the long run."

She relaxed after that, and sat on one of the seats in the waiting room, eyes glued on the red letters of the number screen that would beep every now and then as its display changed.

Someone sat next to her. Dawn turned her head to see Barry, who didn't look as happy as she expected. "Hey," she said. She turned away from him, only looking at him through her peripheral vision. She wondered if she would cry. Her current emotions were a bit numb, but she was pretty sure that the disappointment was going to come crashing down soon enough. The disappointment, she knew, would be all the greater since she had expected to win this tournament, expected to beat Barry.

"Hey," he replied back. Like she'd been doing, he stared up at the screen. His Pokémon were probably being looked at, especially after what they'd gone through.

And speaking of which . . . .

"How did you do that?" she asked. "And you sure you should be here instead of answering reporters or signing autographs?"

That last part, she wished she could take back as soon as it had left her lips. She'd meant for it to be casual, teasing, but it had come out as a little bitchy and resentful.

Barry looked directly at her, and his eyes were serious. "I need to be with my Pokémon," he replied.

To that she had no reply.

"And I'm not sure," he admitted, turning back to staring at the gray square with the red screen. "I mean, we were training hard. And I'm not just saying that, Dawn, I mean, we were training _hard_."

Not sure what to say, Dawn nodded.

He twiddled his fingers, and they reminded her of a video she'd seen of a Joltik being scared. His fingers were so jittery.

She reached over and flicked them. They stilled.

The floor was linoleum. If she squinted, she could see swirls of light dirt left over from countless travelling feet stomping mud into the center, traces left from a janitor's mopping that cleaned enough for the public eye.

"I talked to the gym leader," he blurted out when the number on the board changed with an obnoxious sound. Five more until her turn.

"Yeah?" she said, scraping at a larger dirt clod caked onto the ground with her feet. She was wearing soft boots, the kind for casual, urban wear, not for hardcore travelling.

"Yeah," he said. "I asked him a few questions on how I could beat my dad."

That didn't surprise her. Barry's dream wasn't just to become the very best – it was to beat his dad and rise above him. He respected Palmer, loved him dearly, but Palmer was exactly what he ran to Barry – a Frontier. _The_ Frontier.

"And I asked him, because dad always said that he was his greatest rival, but he said that only I could help myself with that. Only I could achieve getting greater than my dad."

"That makes sense."

Barry shrugged. "I disagree."

Dawn started and looked at him. Barry looked casual. "I mean," he added to explain, "sure, I need to be the best I can, and my Pokémon need to be the best they can, but that's not everything. We don't live alone in this world, do we? We have friends, and rivals, and family. All those people are special and they kinda help us grow. There's more than me in getting better."

Dawn was impressed with his opinion, and the fact that he formed it against the man he wanted to train under.

But Barry wasn't done. "He also asked me if I'd lost any of my Pokémon."

She thought about Sekhmet, and how she'd panicked when Mars and her Purugly back in the Windworks had made her bleed badly. She thought about the fuzzy, vague memories she had of her dad, and the stories her mom had to tell her so she would know something about him. She thought about her mom, one day, bringing home a small, elegant ceramic urn when she was eight, and a Beautifly in the house before that day.

"I'm scared of losing them," he admitted. "I looked up the average life expectancies, you know. Allen's going to live around ten years. Camarero maybe twenty. Starling around five, six if he takes it easy. Bruce and Billie Jean, twenty five to thirty. Champ's going to last the longest – one hundred plus, easy. He's probably going to outlive me. Or he should."

"But that's not how it works." It felt a bit pretentious of them, two thirteen year olds, talking about death and loss when they only knew a taste of the bitterness it brought. She couldn't pretend to know it better – she had a motive, but that motive was a face she only knew from photographs and dim memories. Team Galactic was giving her more of a motive, and the memories left from clashing with them were sharper, more bitter and acrid in her mouth.

"No," he agreed. "It's not. And that's why I want to say something."

He stood up, and turned to her. Before she could say anything, he pointed a finger right into her face. She almost got cross eyed staring at the tip of his pointer finger, noticing the ragged, torn edge of the nail that still had a bit of dirt under it. It contrasted to her own smooth, clean nails.

_Trained hard._ Dawn felt a bit of shame for taking the easier, more comfortable route and arrogantly assuming that she could become the best with only half the effort.

"You," he announced, and it wasn't loud, but the words he said were weighed with importance. "Are my rival. My greatest rival. You and I will compete, and we will learn off of each other, and we will become better through learning and observing each other."

Now she felt a bit bitter. He clearly already knew how to get better. He was ahead of her on their journey despite the fact that they'd both started out on the same day, with near-identical conditions. He'd beaten her, and had a solid core of evolved Pokémon on his team. "You sure you want me to be your rival after this?" she asked.

Almost all throughout the time she'd known Barry, she had taken care of him. Looked after him, made sure he was alright, that he didn't forget his homework because he was definitely smart, but it wouldn't make for a competition if he simply forgot about his assignment or when his test was.

She was willing to let him leave, but she'd be bitter about it.

Barry banished all thoughts of that when he looked at her like she was crazy. "That was one loss," he said. "I've lost against you a few times and _I've_ never given up. Why would _you_ give up?"

He made it sound so obvious, like there was no other option.

Dawn looked down at her hands, the ones she still kept clean and soft by washing constantly and moisturizing with lotion. She looked at him, who, while sort of clean, was dressed in clothes that appeared a little wrinkled and stiff in the cheap Laundromat-washed way. No softener, no proper drying, no proper folding could do that to clothes.

And she still remembered his nails. She'd seen his nails like that after he'd been climbing trees or camping, when he got almost reckless in exploring or climbing.

And he was right. Why would she give up? How dare she think about giving up? One loss was nothing. She had to keep going.

"We're going to make each other get stronger."

He was right. She'd have to up her game.

She stared at him, this time with a challenge in a smirk stretching across her lips. "I thought that was what we were already doing," she said jokingly.

Recognizing the tone he huffed, and she saw a bit of the old Barry, the hyper, flighty one underneath. "Well, yeah, but it needed to be made official."

Dawn couldn't help it – she laughed. "Alright," she said when she had finished snickering. "We're officially rivals. Officially."

"And we're going to compete with each other and get stronger," he added.

"And that," she agreed.

The screen buzzed, and it was her number being called. She stood up and walked over to the counter. Barry followed her and waited nearby while she picked up her Poké balls and listened to anything the nurse had to say.

"They should all be fully healed," the nurse said. "But they've been healed repeatedly today, and as good as healing technology is, there's nothing that beats a good night of rest. Get them some food and water, and a good night of sleep."

"Alright," she said. "Thank you."

Barry was next, and he received similar comments. "It's quite amazing that four of your Pokémon all evolved at the same time," the nurse commented after letting it slip that she had watched the finals from the television in the center. "We've restored as much nutrients as we could, but you should still feed them. They'll be eating quite a lot now that they've all reached their final stages. It's a good thing you've won a lot of money, huh?"

He laughed. "I guess it is," he said.

They held tightly onto their Poké balls, not speaking after responding to the receptionist's comments, until they were out of the center. Dawn fidgeted with her Poké balls in her coat pocket, thinking. Should she let them out? She wanted to talk to them, tell them that it wasn't their fault, that it was hers for underestimating Barry, for not taking him seriously in time, for not being the best she should have been.

She looked at her watch. Eight twenty eight.

Dawn made a decision, and clapped Barry on his shoulder. He looked at her.

"You're buying food tomorrow," she told him. "I'm tired, so I'm going to grab some food and then go to bed. See you."

"Promise, rival of mine?"

Dawn shot him a look. "Duh. Just don't forget."

"Just don't be late!"

She was about to head towards a small mart she'd noticed on the way to the gym when he shouted something. "And don't give up! Otherwise, I'm going to fine you!"

Dawn thought of several things she could shout back, but found none of them to be appropriate enough. Instead, she turned around and gave him a salute.

He saluted back, and then ran off. He wasn't quite running away from her so much as running in the same direction as her.

"I'll catch up," she swore as she went into the mart so she could pick up food for her Pokémon and herself. "And I'll win."

She didn't cry.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxio), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Faith (Eevee), Frejya (Buneary)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts)

* * *

AN: The battle went on a lot longer than I expected. Huh.

Dawn's getting a new Pokémon pretty soon. Any guesses?

Also, it seems that Hoenn is the favoured arc for this universe. That doesn't mean I'm abandoning the others, just that Hoenn is prioritized. If you'd like, you can go to my profile and read the summary.

Finally, I'd like to recommend a story called "Pokémon Misadventures" by TheWordSmith26. It makes me have to work to take Kanto seriously, but it's quite funny and throws in a lot of references fans may get.


	18. Swept Under the Rug

A.S.107

September 11th

_Caught a Pokémon at the Great Marsh._

* * *

The center she was in had rules – no food in the rooms. Dawn considered breaking the rules, but then decided to not push her luck.

She set out some food outside, instead, and then released her Pokémon. Faith and Frejya slunk over to their dishes and began to eat slowly, but the other four stayed still, heads bowed and fidgeting.

Dear Mespirit.

Maybe it was because of her that her Pokémon didn't take a loss well. They didn't mind being knocked out in matches if they won the battle overall, but if they lost the battle then they didn't do so well. Especially if the battles were big, or important.

Dawn swallowed. She didn't exactly take losing battles well. She handled it pretty gracefully, not going into a meltdown worthy of being filmed and put up online, but she still didn't take it too well. It had taken Barry talking her up to not make her burst into tears for losing.

"Can we talk?" she asked, and her Pokémon gave her their attentions.

Dawn took a deep breath. "We lost the battle," she explained. Helios, who had already picked up on things with his psychic senses, bowed his head in resignation or disgrace. Sekhmet let out a hiss and Themis dropped her smile ever so slightly.

Neptune, though, had already known. And his face remained just as hard and frustrated.

"It's not your fault," she began, but Neptune was already turning around and walking off. "Neptune, wait!"

He turned around, face still sullen.

Dawn's heart beat loudly. This was the hard part. "It really wasn't your fault," she said, shame swirling around in her stomach. "It's mine."

Helios began to make sounds of protest, and Sekhmet looked at her with exasperation, but Dawn continued before either of them could cut her off. "You guys remember seeing Barry's Pokémon evolve, right?"

All of them nodded. Even Neptune joined in, although his was more of a single jerk of his head.

Dawn swallowed. "_All_ of the Pokémon he used evolved," Dawn explained.

Helios stared at her with wide eyes, disbelief tickling at her mind. Sekhmet made a furious snarling sound, while Themis looked worried.

But Neptune remained stony faced.

"I've grown lax in training," she said, moving onto her main point. "I've been taking the easy way because it was more convenient and comfortable for me, and because of my selfishness you guys paid." Did she have more things she needed to say? Were there things she hadn't covered?

Helios protested, polite as usual, but Dawn shook her head. "We never stayed outdoors," she said, voice fighting to stay level instead of shrinking off in embarrassment as she pointed out her mistakes to them. "I – I can camp. I just didn't like it because I like indoor plumbing, and daily showers and hot meals that I don't have to prepare. I can do it, but I didn't like it so I never really went for it. I never took you guys out to the wilderness, never suggested it because I was kind of scared that you'd like it and-"

Themis flew over to her, hovering above her head. Before Dawn could ask her what she was up to, the Golbat dropped down abruptly in front of her face.

"Gah!"

In response to that Themis tried to sit on her shoulder. When Dawn nearly fell over at the weight of the Golbat – Themis was slightly heavier than she was – she let up, but she still pushed around at Dawn's head with her leathery wings and made a few hissing sounds.

"What?"

Themis hissed some more, flapped her wings, and then leaned a bit ahead to bite her shoulder. She didn't break the skin, so Dawn knew it was done in affection rather than malignance or anger.

"Okay, I'll shut up," she said. "But it's my fault. I've gotten lax."

Neptune huffed. He stood up, walked closer to her, and put his flippers on his hips impatiently before making a few irritated chirping sounds.

"Wait," Dawn frowned. She was pretty good at interpreting what Neptune wanted to tell her, so right now, he was saying . . . "You already knew that I was lax?"

He nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He crossed his flippers over his chest and raised his chin imperiously.

"It's not your job?"

Neptune huffed and reached out to push at her. Dawn stared in disbelief. He was saying . . . that it was her job?

"Of course it's my job as a trainer," she said, a bit too flabbergasted to be angry, "but that's not a guarantee that I'll be perfect. You should have said something, Neptune – you're the leader, and-"

Her Prinplup let out a sharp chirp. He proceeded to make a few angry gestures with his flippers, occasionally making pecking motions.

"What?" she had no idea what he was trying to say to her. "Neptune, wait, slow down a bit."

He let out an exasperated sound and actually stomped one of his feet.

Sekhmet let out a growl at that. She turned to Neptune, and growled some more. When Neptune raised his chin even more, she snarled out a challenge. Against . . . his leadership?

The other Pokémon watched, wary, as the two senior members of the team looked like they were about to break out into a fight. All of them respected the two, considered them the highest authority after Dawn, and now that they looked to be turning against each other, weren't sure what to do.

"Hey, don't fight," Dawn began, suddenly glad that she'd chosen to do this outdoors rather than in a center room.

Neptune snapped his beak towards Sekhmet.

"No, seriously," Dawn stepped between the two, putting one hand on Sekhmet's head and the other on Neptune's. "Don't fight. Please."

They both settled down, although Sekhmet still shot baleful glares at Neptune.

She waited until she was sure Neptune wouldn't antagonize Sekhmet, and then continued speaking. "Neptune – and everyone else – it _is_ my job as a trainer to make sure that you guys are up to facing all the challenges we're going to meet. And I didn't do my job properly, I admit that.

"But I'm not perfect. I can try my best to be, but I'm going to make mistakes and miss some details that might end up screwing us all up. That's why I'd like to ask you guys to tell me if I'm not good enough. Point out my mistakes. Don't let me lead you all into failure."

She looked at all of them, meeting them in the eye and asking them to critique her. They looked back, some unsure but eventually being more convinced. She didn't speak again until they were all confident.

"So, since you've obviously noticed I've gone lax, I wanted to ask – are you guys up for harder training? For roughing it with me? Because this isn't just something we say and then back out of."

Neptune let out a honking snort, and then nodded. Sekhmet dipped her head, her eyes strong and sure. Faith bound over to her, and rubbed her head against Dawn's ankles with a purring giggle. Themis, from where she was roosted, waved her wing in a salute before she giggled. Frejya nodded, simple as that, and Helios laid a hand over his red spike as he sunk into a deep bow.

"I promise I'll make it up and change," she said. "But for tonight, eat and rest up."

* * *

Neptune was mad.

Mad might have been understating it, however. He was mad at the fact that they had lost. He was mad at the fact that Allen had not only beaten him, but apparently also evolved after beating him – a humiliation he vowed to get back at for. He was mad that Dawn was sad.

But he was beyond furious at the way Dawn kept blaming herself. He despised it when she couldn't see the flaws in others, but only herself.

_That_ was her job. As a human guiding them, she should have been able to detect the faults in others just as well as she did in herself. If she couldn't do that, then what kind of trainer was she?

A part of him knew he was being unfair, but he shut that part of himself out.

Until Sekhmet called him out on it, anyways. "Stop lashing out at others for your shortcomings," she growled.

He raised his chin at her. "I am doing no such thing," he said. "And show your leader some respect."

"You're not my leader," Sekhmet snarled.

That made him angry. "Don't you dare place yourself higher than your station," he bit out.

"Well, it's not like you're exactly a good leader," she growled.

How dare she.

He felt something tug at his consciousness, a fluttering, worried presence. "Please don't fight," Helios murmured from the side. He and the rest of the team looked worried.

Dawn stepped in then, and unconsciously echoed Helios. He wanted to shake her hand off when she touched his head, but at the sad look on her face let it pass.

He was still angry at Sekhmet for challenging him, however. And judging by the haughty air she held about herself as she ate, and the pointed manner in which she didn't look at him, she felt the same.

* * *

While her Pokémon ate she planned out the next few days, coming up with a few objectives. She'd have to call her mom for some camping gear. Buying them was an option, but she had good tents and portable pots back home anyways, and it seemed like a waste to not make use of them. Then she wanted to look into the area around Pastoria.

And then, she wanted to catch another Pokémon. Preferably a type she didn't have. Considering the types she had so far, and the gym leader of the city, she was leaning towards the idea of catching a grass type.

One solution would have been to have Faith evolve into a Leafeon, but Faith still hadn't chosen what she wanted to evolve into yet. Dawn was okay with that, but that still left the issue of a grass type being needed on the team. Despite having a lot of weaknesses, grass types held their worth in their versatile usefulness. Most of them could heal themselves easily, and they often didn't need to eat as much in comparison to other Pokémon their size because they could partially survive off of photosynthesis. They were also easy to raise, since a lot of them grew quickly.

Luckily for her, she was in Pastoria, home of the Great Marsh and a lot of Pokémon, grass types being one of the predominant types residing in it.

The rest of the night was spent giving her Pokémon a rest so they would be fresh and ready for camping while she studied both schoolwork and the local Pokémon in the marsh.

Her time was mostly spent on researching the Pokémon living in the marsh, rather than schoolwork. She was torn between a member of the Budew family – while Themis had poison covered in her team, she remembered just how devastating a Roserade could be in battle, from both Gardenia and Palmer – or some of the mono-grass types that lived in the Marsh. They all seemed like good choices.

In the end she decided to go with whatever she ran into tomorrow, and went to sleep.

The next morning, putting on clothes she would be alright with throwing away and pulling on her old pair of boots, Dawn stepped into the marsh after a light breakfast. The nice thing about the Great Marsh – and Safari Zones in general – were that they could, in theory, catch a lot of Pokémon for a set amount of money. All she had to do was pay the entrance fee, and she received thirty Safari Zone designated balls and a GPS tracker device that she was to wear like a heavy, watch-like strap around her right wrist.

"Please keep that with you at all times, even if the strap breaks," the woman at the counter said. "It keeps track of your time spent in the Safari Zone, and your location. If you don't have one of these and you run into a ranger, they will escort you off premises immediately, and you may be fined for trespassing. If you get lost or run into trouble, you can activate the emergency signal, and a ranger will be with you in a short time."

The woman demonstrated how to activate the signal, and Dawn made sure she knew how to do so. It was rather likely that she would get lost in the marsh.

"If you get lost, then wait a bit," the woman suggested. "There are a lot of rangers walking around, so you should run into one quite often. When you activate the signal, we have to shut down the immediate area that you're in and evacuate everyone."

Dawn promised to wait, and only use the signal when absolutely necessary. Then, thirty Safari balls minimized and in a small canvas bag held in her hand, she walked into the marsh.

The front area was grassy, but had firm ground. The firmness gave way as she wandered left, however, and her boots began sinking into the gradually softening ground. With one last look towards the entrance, she walked past a gathering of trees and towards what could only be described as a mud bog. The smell of the place was nice – a woodsy, muddy kind of smell, combined with the fresh scent of cedar and other trees. Clean. Nature-like. Real.

She smiled, and hopped a few paces to get to intermittent grassy patches in the bog, where the grass roots in the ground gave her some kind of a foothold to prevent sinking into the mud. She'd taken a peek from one of the binoculars in the second floor observatory, and seen a few Pokémon around here.

As if answering to her unspoken thoughts, a Tangela came hopping out from behind a large log half-sunk in the middle of the bog, not thirty paces from where she stood stranded in the mud.

Well, if _that_ wasn't a sign from the gods . . . .

She threw one of the Safari balls given to her, hoping to get it done with before adopting the Great Marsh's mud as a second skin. The Tangela was sucked in, but almost immediately broke out. It danced around the broken halves of her Safari ball, and then began to run away in a strange, skipping kind of gait.

Dawn had to hop to the side of the bog, nearly sinking in mud a few times, before she found solid ground that she could properly run on.

"Why can't I weaken them?" she muttered as she ran after the fleeing tangle of vines, determined to catch it. "Lucas told me that I should weaken them and give them a status condition to make capture easier. Why can't I do that?"

Of course she knew why – the pamphlets, the posters and the huge cardboard cut-outs in the lobby of the marsh all told her that this safari zone, like many others, was made friendly for Pokémon to ensure that they were only _captured_ and not _hurt_ in the process. This way, all the Pokémon in the area could be for capture, but would be alright even when they broke out because they wouldn't be hurt. Apparently that way any failed attempts wouldn't lead to severely injured Pokémon dragging themselves off only to die.

As well-meaning as the rules were . . . they were still annoying.

Focused on the Tangela, she didn't notice the blue tail sticking out of the grass until she nearly stepped on the Skorupi underfoot. "Sorry," she yelped when the poison type bug took a swipe at her with irritated eyes. She ran from the bug before it decided to extract its revenge on her.

But now she'd lost sight of the Tangela. Great.

Dawn tried to find traces of where the vine Pokémon had gone, and then froze. There, standing next to the muddy bog, was a large grassy dinosaur with leaf-like wings. It was really tall, nearly twice as tall as she was, with a long, graceful neck that allowed it to reach the branches of the taller trees.

She couldn't recall the name of the Pokémon. It looked gentle, and she was fairly sure she'd seen it before while looking up Pokémon living in the Great Marsh, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was called.

It looked like a good catch, though.

She began to creep towards the unaware grass type, readying a Safari ball. Just a bit closer, so that she wouldn't miss –

A Safari ball flew forwards, and absorbed the large Pokémon before she could even try. Stunned, Dawn watched as the ball shook a few times and then dinged in confirmation.

"Whoo!"

For a moment Dawn thought the enthusiastic voice was Barry, but the guy that raced out into the clearing where the ball lay was definitely not Barry. He was older, probably in university judging from the ratty University of Rustboro sweatshirt he was wearing. He was a lot muddier than she was, with some streaks of drying mud on his tanned face and in his slightly darker brown hair.

He picked up the ball and pumped his fist. "Finally!" he cheered, and then he noticed her. His cheerful mood faded slightly. "Oh, um, I'm sorry, did you want to catch the Tropius?"

Tropius! Now she remembered the Pokémon's name. "Yeah, but it's okay," she said, deciding to forgo the Pokémon.

He looked at her, and winced. "Are you a trainer?" he asked, and she guessed that he was from Hoenn based on his accent. He was darker coloured than the pale Tierran Hoennian, but lighter than the Atlantian Hoennian. Maybe a mixed blood, or just a guy that spent far too much time in the sun. "Aw, man, now I feel really bad. Are you sure you don't want to-?"

Dawn shook her head. "It's alright," she assured him. "I think the Tropius was a bit too big for me to take care of properly." Even if grass types could often take care of their food, the grass Pokémon had been huge. She wasn't sure if she could afford to fully take care of it properly.

"Man, I remember travelling around," he said fondly. "Had a pretty big Pokémon myself. If it weren't for dad, I'd have never been able to handle him."

He glanced at his watch. "Well, I've caught the Pokémon I've wanted, but I've still got some time left. Can I make it up for you by helping you find any Pokémon you want? I think I can be considered an expert – I've been here for three days."

She considered the offer. She could probably use the help, and this guy could keep her from getting lost in the marsh if he knew the area as well as he claimed. And he didn't look like he was saying that for the sake of bragging. There was sincerity in his brown eyes, and something nice to listen to in his Hoennian-accented voice.

"Okay," she said, "that would be great."

He smiled, and it was bright and sunny. "Alright," he said, and extended his right hand after clapping off some of the dirt from his palm. She took it, and felt his calluses on his large hand that practically swallowed hers.

"I'm Dawn," she said.

"Nice to meet you, Dawn. My name's Brendan," he introduced himself.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxio), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Frejya (Buneary), Faith (Eevee)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts)

* * *

AN: So it looks like Skorupi is the fan favourite for Dawn's next 'mon. Huh.

And if Brendan is a familiar name oh well, I probably totally meant it (cough Hoenn cough).

In reply to a guest's review, Frejya's spelling is honestly just like that because I was looking up mythological gods on Wikipedia and it was one of the ways to spell it. It's just by personal preference because I thought it was cool to have the J before the Y. As for the interspersing issue, drat, I thought I was doing enough of that in the story. Thank you for pointing that out.


	19. A Heart Hidden In Vines

A.S.107

September 11th

_She's my first Pokémon who didn't immediately get along with me, but that shouldn't stop me._

* * *

She had five hours and forty six minutes left, he two hours and thirteen minutes. Since that was a pretty long time, they talked a bit as Brendan guided her towards an area that, according to him, was popular with grass types.

"I'm from Hoenn – as I'm sure you could guess," he said with a laugh, gesturing at the general area of his sweatshirt.

"I'm – well, I'm from Sinnoh," Dawn offered.

They talked for a while as they trekked across the boggy areas. He explained his muddy attire – he had fallen into a mud puddle when a mischievous Quagsire had decided to give him a cold, wet surprise early in the morning.

That reminded her that Brendan had been exploring this area for three days now. "Why were you here for three days?" she asked him, curious. "I thought Tropius were more common in Hoenn, being a lot warmer and all."

"They are," he said. "But I'm working on a Pokédex, and recently my research consists of observing Pokémon for differences due to climate diversity while I'm here on an exchange student program between Rustboro and Hearthome's universities. It's really just helping my dad collect data," he added sheepishly. "He's a guy that looks into habitats. Oh, um, a Pokédex is a device that-"

Dawn brought out her own Pokédex, effectively silencing Brendan in his attempt to explain the device. "You have one?" he asked, sounding surprised. "Wow, you must be a pretty special trainer. I heard that Professor Rowan was really ana – um, picky with the people he gave them out to."

Dawn had the feeling that Brendan had just censored himself, but she let it go for his attempt. "Thanks," she said, and put the Pokédex away. "I don't really catch very many Pokémon, though."

"That's fine," he said, ducking under a branch. She, being considerably shorter than him, simply walked below the hanging appendage. "I have a friend who did that as well. She took good notes on her Pokémon's development, battled a lot and collected a lot of data on Pokémon, and that made dad plenty happy. _Freeze_!"

The last word was harshly whispered out, and his arm shot out in front of her to stop her in her tracks. He crouched down, eyes focused on something ahead. "How do you feel about a Roselia?" he asked her.

Dawn peeked out from behind his arm, and saw the grass and poison type stepping into the shallow end of a large lake. She already had a poison type, but, well, the Roserade family _were_ good Pokémon to have around. "I'm good with them," she whispered.

"Alright. Do you mind that it's a male?" he whispered back.

She was impressed at how he noticed the gender difference from the distance. "No," she replied.

He nodded, and the two of them began creeping forwards. They were within throwing range when all of a sudden, the deeper part of the lake exploded. Dawn let out a shriek, Brendan let out a yell of surprise and the Gyarados that had burst out of the water roared, throwing its head back.

Dawn began reaching for Sekhmet's ball, confident that her Luxio could handle the water and flying type, only to stumble as Brendan grabbed her and shoved her behind his body as he reached for a ball himself.

Luckily for them, they didn't need to bring out their Pokémon. The Gyarados, it seemed, had only wanted to scare the living daylights out of every living being nearby, because it simply slunk back into the water, leaving everything as quiet as it had been before.

"Uh," said Dawn. Her left foot had been shoved into a muddy bog, and now she couldn't pull it out properly.

Brendan sighed in relief, and then turned around to see her struggling. "Sorry about that," he said, and helped pull her leg out from the particularly possessive part of the mud. "Habit."

"I'm – grrnf – fine," she said, nearly stumbling when her foot did get loose. "Is the Roselia still around?"

It wasn't.

"Well, that's not the only grass type around," Brendan said with some cheer in his voice. "Although, it might be a little hard finding any more Roselia or Budew. I'm actually surprised that one was still around."

"Why?" Dawn asked as they gave the lake a wide berth. The surface had calmed down, giving a tranquil appearance once more, but it had been peaceful seconds before the Gyarados had made its appearance. They didn't want to end up as dinner for a dragon.

"I heard that the Great Marsh's management is trying to phase the Budew family out of here," he explained. "Apparently, they interfere too much with the habitat and threaten the balance here by breeding faster than other species. Since they're pretty common in Sinnoh, they don't have to be given protected status in the marsh. Or so that's the argument."

Dawn made a face. "Are they killing them?"

Brendan shook his head. "No, but they're mass-capturing them and then either selling or releasing them into the wild away from here. I heard that a lot of them were taken to Eterna so they could be gym Pokémon."

Rooted away from home. Dawn though that was a bit sad.

Still, she supposed that the other Pokémon in the marsh had to be protected as well. "Wait," she frowned. "But doesn't the marsh also have other common Pokémon like Staravia and Bibarel?"

"Yeah, but the Bibarel make the dams and the Staravia constantly move in and out." Brendan paused to take a look around their area. "We should be near," he muttered before continuing to make an argument. "Budew and Roselia don't do that, and they breed far too fast here."

At the sight of rustling grass, Dawn froze and tugged at Brendan's sleeve before silently pointing towards the area. He fell silent as well, and, after nodding to each other, crept forwards as silently as they could.

Halfway there, the two of them were startled out of their intense focus when a vine-covered head popped up from behind the grass.

"Tangela," Brendan noted.

Dawn threw a ball.

The Safari ball flew, and struck the Tangela's forehead smack dab in the middle of its two eyes. Dazed, it sat back and the ball absorbed it.

"They're pretty good Pokémon," Brendan began to say when the ball burst open. Dawn immediately threw another one, but the Tangela, eyes narrowed, hit the sphere away from itself with a vine.

Brendan moved away from her, circling left. The Tangela tried to turn and run away from both humans, only to nearly ram its head into the tree directly behind it.

Dawn threw another ball, this time at the back of the Tangela's head. After absorbing the grass type it shook twice before breaking, but the failed capture bought her enough time to catch up to the Pokémon. Between her, Brendan and the tree, the Tangela had very limited mobility. It was practically boxed in, and it knew it.

When the Tangela turned to give her an annoyed look, she threw another ball right into its face and hit the space between its eyes at point blank range. This time, the ball stayed closed, shook three times and then let out a click.

"Awesome," she sighed once she had the filled ball in her hands.

"Good job," Brendan complimented her. "Anyways – pretty good Pokémon. I think they make for one hell of a defensive wall. Or was it a special wall? I can't remember right at this moment."

Dawn couldn't really remember either, but she could look it up later.

Brendan checked his watch. "Anything else you wanted to catch?" he asked. "I've still got nearly an hour left."

He looked tired, though. "I'm okay," she said. "I really just wanted to catch one Pokémon for now, anyways. Thanks for your help."

Brendan full-out smiled, and suddenly, despite the mud on his face and in his hair, it occurred to Dawn that Brendan was _really_ good looking. "No problem," he replied, still beaming handsomely.

He even escorted her back to the exit, making sure that she didn't get lost. "Good luck on your gym challenge," he said at the entrance to the marsh.

"Thanks. Good luck on your research!"

He waved, and then went off towards a direction different from hers.

Returning to the center she was staying at, Dawn had to brush and strike all the mud off her boots before she was allowed to enter the building. She still trekked some into the place despite her best efforts to clean the mud off.

She paused by the PC to deposit Frejya, and fill the spot with the newly caught Tangela before she returned to her room. Once the door was closed, she let out all of her Pokémon except for the Tangela so she could talk with them. "We have a new teammate."

Dawn checked the stats of the Poké ball. Tangela. Grass type, female, full health. No status inflictions, ability chlorophyll.

Her newly-caught Tangela looked confused when she materialized in a room, but her expression turned to one of extreme annoyance when it landed on Dawn. Neptune glowering at her kept her at bay, but only just so. She looked like she was considering cashing in on the type advantage.

Dawn cleared her throat to distract her. The pile of vines gave a start, but the eyes shining in between soon focused in on a sulky glare directed to her. "Hi," she said. "I'm Dawn."

The Tangela continued to glower. A bit more nervous now, Dawn began to ramble, forgetting parts of her 'You-have-a-choice' and 'I-won't-force-you-but-I'd-mighty-appreciate-it-if-you-come-with-me' speech.

Neptune huffed, and snidely chirped a few things. In retaliation the grass type threw a glowing green bulb towards him.

Her starter snarled in outrage when the bulb burst on him, absorbing some of his health and taking it to the Tangela. The Tangela snarled right back, and lashed out with a few sharp vines.

Helios, gallant Pokémon he was, stepped in front of Dawn and took the stray vine whip coming her way as Sekhmet let out a growl of irritation at the chaos being created by the newbie. Themis snickered slightly, safe in her resistance to grass type attacks.

Dawn tried to return the Tangela so she wouldn't end up wrecking the room they were in, but the vine flicked her hand and knocked the ball out of her grasp, sending it rolling out of her reach.

The frantic whipping only stopped when Faith, yelping, had to duck under the cot to dodge a hit from a stray vine. Themis, no longer quite as amused and deciding she had enough of this chaos, dropped onto the Tangela like a predator from a horror movie. Uncharacteristically serious and scowling, she hissed and chattered a few things to the Tangela into her face, and when the grass type sullenly stayed silent, lifted her into the air by biting her and shaking her a few times.

Almost reluctantly, the grass type dropped her vines to her sides. "Ta-ang," she grumbled. Themis let her down, a little more harshly than she could have.

This was . . . unexpected. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to corner the grass type and then continue to throw the balls at her head. It would have tried the patience of anyone to repeatedly be hit in the same spot a few times.

"Alright, before we talk more," Dawn said. "Some rules. Not just mine, but in human society in general. Don't just randomly burst into attack, especially any that might end up hurting people unless it's for self defense, or for defending someone else. If you don't keep this rule, you might be put down. Killed," she added in case the Tangela didn't understand the euphemism.

The Tangela's eyes, the only really visible feature behind the mass of vines, rolled. _Who cares_, she seemed to say. _Big deal._

"I know you don't really seem to like us," Dawn said. Neptune, who had retreated to the side to nurse his wound, let out a rude noise. "But you know, we're not that bad. We watch out for each other, we help each other, we work together to get stronger."

The Tangela looked sullen, but she wasn't lashing out.

Dawn looked around. "Maybe you could talk to one of them?" she suggested. "Ask them any questions, get their opinions, let them explain what I can't. Do you guys mind?"

Neptune minded, so she let him sit to the side since he refused to retreat into his Poké ball. The rest of them – Faith, Themis, Helios and Sekhmet – sat in different parts of the small room. Her starter bristled when the Luxio sat primly, practically radiating superiority in his direction, but Dawn yanked him away before he could lunge at her or do something just as volatile. The last thing she wanted was to show the Tangela any dissonance in the team dynamic, and the leader and the second-in-command being at each other's throats was the biggest sign of dissatisfaction she could possibly think of. He sulked at her side, but mercifully stayed still.

Tangela hesitated, and then plodded over on her red feet to Helios. The Kirlia bowed slightly, and then gestured at the Tangela to sit in front of him. She did, and he took a seat himself, crossing his legs in the lotus position. When the Tangela shot an uncomfortable, hostile look towards everyone else, Dawn got the hint before Helios had to look her way, slight pleading look in his eyes.

"Should we leave?"

The Tangela made some muttering sounds. Helios shook his head, and mimed something round with his hands.

"Return everyone?"

Helios nodded.

Neptune made a few 'I'm watching you' gestures towards the Tangela before he allowed Dawn to return him. Sekhmet made a warning growl before she followed. Themis merely snickered, good humour restored, and Faith only tossed her head before both let themselves be returned.

"I can leave the room," she offered, but Helios shook his head. After a moment, the Tangela huffed and made the equivalent of a shrugging motion, despite lacking definite shoulders.

So Dawn sat down on the shaken cot, and despite not understanding what was being said, watched Helios defend her character as a person and a trainer to the Tangela that didn't seem to hold a favourable opinion of her.

* * *

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak," Helios said.

The Tangela huffed. "Whatever, pretty boy," she said.

He nodded. The grass type's mind was a kind one, but her emotions were scared and wary, unsure of trusting anyone. She _wanted_ to trust Dawn, and his teammates, but she wasn't sure of the kind of lives they were, and didn't want to let them in because she feared getting betrayed and hurt.

The Tangela's eyes narrowed. "Stop that," she snapped, apparently feeling his psychic probing in her mind. Defensive, wary, hurt . . .

She'd been hurt before.

"I apologize," he said instantly, withdrawing from his touching of her consciousness. It wasn't his place to probe into her secrets and violate her privacy.

"Whatever," she said again huffily. "So? Tell me about your human."

"My trainer," he corrected politely. "Her name is Dawn."

The Tangela blinked at him, as if to ask why she would care.

So Helios began with her skills, seeing as how the Tangela's interest had peaked the most when power had been mentioned. "She makes all of us stronger," he said. "She is skilled at battling, and she leads us into victory most of the time."

The Tangela was sharp. "_Most_ of the time?" she asked.

He shrugged. "No one can always be at their best," he said, reciting a lesson his mother had taught him once, when he questioned why some types were strong to others. "There are always weaknesses, or times when one can't perform to their best capabilities. Down days, so to speak."

The grass type looked unimpressed, so he continued on. "She's won four badges," he said, before realizing that wild Pokémon may not quite know what badges were. He and his sister hadn't, but Frejya had been kind enough to discreetly teach them what she had known, which was actually quite a lot. "Badges are emblems that represent-"

"I know what badges are," the Tangela interrupted.

So she had some knowledge of human battling systems. Helios filed that piece of information away for later thought. "And she is here for the fifth one, against the water type user," he said, moving on smoothly after she spoke up.

"Figured," she grumbled, but didn't elaborate when Helios paused to listen to her.

He continued on when he was sure she wouldn't talk. "I met her when I was a Ralts, along with my sister. We were looking for a good human, but we hadn't found anyone that was particularly good, and we were getting tired. And then we ran into her, and she was warm."

"Warm?"

"Warm," Helios repeated, closing his red eyes and thinking of the sun, thinking of Dawn and how her mind was so bright and warm like the sun to them. "She's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet."

The Tangela didn't seem convinced. "She'll also listen to what you have to say," he said. "For example, by nature's will alone, I would evolve into a Gardevoir. When I told her that I wanted to become a Gallade rather than Gardevoir, however, she hunted and searched for a rare and valuable dawn stone just so I could get it. She traded away a precious stone of equal value that she might have sold to get something for herself, or saved for a possibly future Pokémon."

He wasn't closely attuned with the Tangela, but he could sense the longing from her. "I think she can help you evolve," he suggested innocently.

The longing grew thicker from her and Helios knew that he'd – as Neptune would have put it – hit the jackpot. "She also happens to be working for a professor who studies Pokémon evolution. He's the leading expert on evolution – it's how she's able to help me evolve into a Gallade. If you came with us-"

"Fine," said the Tangela.

Helios nodded, and made to stand before he sat down again. "But before we inform trainer of your decision," Helios said, "I would very much appreciate it if you could abandon your harsh attitude."

The Tangela blinked at him, so he continued. "We are strong because we are a team," he said. "I understand you were alone before-"

The grass type jerked back like he had just raised his hand and struck her across her face. He continued on, pretending he hadn't noticed her reaction. "But you're not alone. And that may annoy you in the beginning, because the presence of so many others may feel overbearing and crowded in the beginning. But don't push us away, please. Give us a chance, and let us become close to you. Let us be your teammates, and I swear to you that it will be worth it."

She looked towards him with a glance that was almost suspicious, and based on her appearance alone it would have seemed like she wanted nothing more than to not be a trained Pokémon.

But he was a psychic, and he could sense the longing in her. Not just for the evolution, but for the bonds he had described with the team and Dawn.

Perhaps that was why she'd chosen him to talk to. Subconsciously, she really did want to be part of a group, a good group. She wanted someone to notice what she outwardly didn't express.

He met her glare with a polite smile and waited for her to decide. He felt her decision before she answered.

"Alright," she said, voice gruff but no longer hostile.

His smile widened at his success. He was proud, of both himself and of the Tangela that had decided to take a chance based on his words. "Welcome to the team," he said.

* * *

Barry didn't like to stay in the same place for long. Nowhere but home was home, and he wasn't much for sightseeing. There wasn't a point in sticking around, so once he was done his business he was usually out of the place. Even Pastoria, his former home and the home of his master, wasn't a different case. He told Dawn to call when it was time for her match before leaving town.

The northern part of Route 212 was a different matter entirely. Barry had been pretty much camped there ever since leaving Pastoria, staking out one specific 'honey' tree. They had sweet-scented sap that drew in even Pokémon who usually didn't like sweets, and combined with some honey slathered onto its bark could draw in extremely rare species. He'd already caught an Aipom, two Wurmples and a Cherubi.

There were only two Pokémon he was aiming for, though, and none of the ones he'd seen so far qualified. His mom was happy about the Pokémon he sent her to keep her company, but he really wanted a Heracross or a Munchlax. Preferably both – Heracross was one of the strongest physical attackers out there, even with the bug typing, and Snorlax were Pokémon that gave even his dad trouble fighting.

The tree shook. Barry sent Allen, who shot a water gun into its branches.

The Pokémon inside hissed angrily and threw itself out to reveal-

_A Heracross!_ "Water gun again, Allen!" Barry ordered. The orange mammal obeyed, but the hit only served to anger the fighting beetle. It strode forwards to engage with its foe, locking Allen with its intimidating horn.

But Allen didn't like going down without a fight.

While they struggled, Barry pulled a net ball out of his pocket and tossed it. His Floatzel nearly fell over when his opponent was abruptly pulled into the ball, but he regained his stance and watched coolly as the ball shook and then clicked to confirm capture.

"Thanks," he said to both Allen and the Heracross. "I'm naming you . . . Marcus."

* * *

_"I see you're working hard on your Pokédex,"_ Professor Rowan said to her over the video chat. He was reviewing her work, and it was a little nerve-wracking for her. If her work wasn't satisfactory, he could very well take the Pokédex away from her.

If he was being sarcastic, she wouldn't have known. His poker face remained as perfect as ever.

Dawn decided to take it as a compliment. "Thank you, professor," she said.

_"Of course,"_ he continued on. _"It would be much better if you caught more Pokémon, but I get the feeling that you don't like arbitrarily catching any and every Pokémon that comes your way."_

She gave him a slight smile. "Yeah . . . ."

"_It's not a bad thing,"_ he told her. _"And you may always release them back into the wild, much like the method Lucas uses, as long as they haven't been trained far beyond the local level. But that's not what you called to talk about, is it?"_

"No, although you're right and I should focus more on the Pokédex." Dawn decided to get back on track and ask him about her latest team member's wish. Helios, after some quiet talk with the Tangela, had come up to her with a smile.

"I take it she wants to join?" Dawn asked, and he nodded before holding his hand up. "But?"

He nodded, and then mimed expanding. Or getting bigger. Growth? No – evolution. "She wants to evolve?"

Helios beamed at her.

"Does she want to evolve as soon as possible or is anytime good?"

Her Kirlia flushed slightly in sheepish embarrassment before turning to ask the Tangela, who had shrugged and made a few hissing sounds. He made a shoving, do-as-you-will gesture. "Anytime, then," she interpreted, and wasn't corrected.

But she still wanted to have the knowledge of how Tangela evolved, and who better to ask than the evolution expert himself? She knew he didn't mind, so she asked.

"Professor, recently I caught a Tangela, and she wants to evolve. Since your studies focus on evolution, I was wondering if you knew how they can evolve." Rhetorical question – of course he knew.

From behind his beard, Professor Rowan gave her a rare smile_. "A Tangela,"_ he said, and on a man with a less gruff voice the words would have been hummed in delight. _"Very interesting species. It's one of the three currently known Pokémon that evolve when training while knowing the move ancient power."_

"Ancient power?"

Professor Rowan nodded. "_It's a move that pulls prehistoric instinct from the core of the Pokémon and converts it into power. The three Pokémon – Tangela, Piloswine and Yanma – evolve __soon after__ they learn this move. We've hypothesized that the surge of prehistoric energy triggers certain hormones that lead to evolution, and the reason why this type of change is exclusive to only these specific Pokémon in these specific environments –"_

Suddenly the professor broke off with a cough. "_I apologize, I'm rambling,"_ he said. _"The point is, your Tangela will evolve when it learns ancient power. The average level at the Great Marsh is close to the one where most Tangela learn that move, so in theory, she should evolve after training vigorously and eating well for a few weeks. Keep in mind," _he added,_ "it should be _actual_ training that really challenges her, not taking some walks in a garden or hitting a punching bag a few dozen times. The will to excel and evolve comes from the primal urge to live and survive."_

She could do that. In fact, that had been the plan. Dawn was almost glad that the evolution technique didn't require another stone. She didn't have anything in particular she could trade for one, and it had been sheer luck that she'd found someone willing to trade a dawn stone for a dusk stone.

"Alright," Dawn stiffened a yawn from cracking her jaws wide open. It was getting late, and her eyelids were beginning to droop heavily. "Thank you, professor. And good night!"

_"Good night. I wish you luck, Dawn."_ Nodding, the professor logged off.

Then she called her mom. _"I sent you all the things you asked for," _Johanna said after her face popped up on the screen. Behind her, Jackie waved a slender hand before lifting Selene into the air so the Ralts could say hi.

Dawn waved at her. "The tent? The pots? The portable stove?"

_"Yes," _Johanna said, smiling_. "Along with an extra canister of gas, a few plates, cutlery, tea and some feminine hygiene products."_

Dawn flushed and looked around the computer room of the center. The only other person was a woman at the other end of the room, but she had headphones over her ears.

Still, _not cool_ to say that out loud in public. "_Mom_," she hissed. "I haven't even _started_ my – you know . . . ."

Her mom rolled her eyes. _"Honestly, Dawn, saying the word 'period' out loud will not result in a bolt of lightning striking you dead."_

Her face felt like it was burning. "I'm going to hang up," she threatened.

Johanna held up her hands in surrender. "_Fine, we won't speak about the change you're going to be making from a girl to a woman."_

_"Mom."_

She continued on smoothly. _"How long are you going to be camping out?"_

Dawn shrugged. "Two days, I'm guessing," she said. "I don't want to jump right into it, you know? I think I should get used to roughing it slowly so I don't end up over my head."

_"And when do you plan on coming home?"_

"Erm . . . ." She hadn't actually given that too much thought. Somewhere in the months, she'd grown used to poor-quality center cots, bad food and travelling constantly.

This was, like, her third or fourth month on the road.

Her mom knew her too well. _"I hope you don't plan on travelling in the winter," _she said with a sigh._ "You know it's dangerous."_

"I could go to Sunyshore during the colder months," she half-heartedly suggested. "It's probably okay there."

_"Ah, yes, Sunyshore,"_ her mom's voice was sarcastic now. _"So instead of trying to ski to places on snow piled higher than an adult man, you'll only be trekking through snow piled up to your waist."_

Well, when she put it _that_ way . . . .

"I'll go home right after I beat Crasher Wake," Dawn promised. "I don't know when that is, but I think I'll be able to win before November."

_"That seems reasonable,"_ her mom agreed, even though she didn't look too happy at the thought of November. Pastoria was one of Sinnoh's warmest settlements, but even the southern city was freezing in winter. "_If you can, though, try to head home a few days before,"_ Johanna paused with a frown, and then reached for a calendar on the desk to check a few dates. _"The twenty first of October."_

"Why?"

_"Richard Backlot is holding a dinner party at his mansion, and he sent an invitation."_

Richard Backlot was one of her mom's biggest fans, and one of the largest patrons of the Pokémon coordinating world. He, like the Steeles, came from old money, and owned a lot of valuable estate and properties like Amity Square in Hearthome.

It was a joke between her mom and Mr. Backlot – and a circle of friends – for him to propose to her with over-dramatic, elaborate speeches outlining plans for the two to elope. More often than not Dawn was used as an excuse by Johanna to shoot him down.

When she had been younger Dawn had hated him for trying to replace her dad in her mom's heart before Johanna explained that Mr. Backlot was happily married and only joking, and that they were only friends.

_"I'll be taking a few of my best students along so they can network and meet people, but I think this could be a good opportunity for you as well. Not everyone at the dinner will be interested in coordinating, so I'm sure you can find lots of sponsors there to help you out financially, if you can appeal to them right. Richard mentioned that a few of his nephews and nieces will also be attending, and that they enjoy battling."_

Dawn frowned. Mr. Backlot's two children, Liam and Celeste, were a few years older than her, and while generally nice people hadn't been hardcore battlers. As for their cousins, she could only remember Melissa Backlot, who had recently made news for trying to smuggle in a fairy type into Sinnoh from a Kalos shopping trip. Not exactly smart or caring about Pokémon, since fairy types couldn't survive for long outside of Kalos.

They were gearing more towards being socialites and business men, so how did battling come into play?

Unless her mom was saying that they'd be easy to beat, and therefore be good to show herself and her Pokémon off to everyone there.

"Alright," she said. "I'll go home then."

_"Come a few days before so we can get you a new dress," _her mom suggested_. "And isn't it a little late for you to be up right now?"_

It was eleven thirty. "I'll go to sleep now," she said, remembering that she was really tired. "G'night, mom. Love you."

_"I love you too, Dawn. Sweet dreams."_

After logging off and shutting the computer down, Dawn padded back to her room, weighing out the pros and cons of taking her newly caught Tangela along for a trip in the outdoors. She wasn't sure what decision she came to before her head hit the pillows and she fell straight into the dream realms of Cresselia.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxio), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Faith (Eevee), Medusa (Tangela)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts), Frejya (Buneary)

* * *

AN: So who thought that Tangela wasn't the Pokémon Dawn would get because it ran away in the beginning?

Thank you to all the reviewers who helped me pass 50 reviews. I honestly thought I'd get to a hundred chapters before I got 50 reviews (I don't have a hundred chapters). I was planning on doing something special, but then I got sick. So, maybe at the 100th review mark? (cross fingers in hope)


	20. In the Face of Their First Trial

A.S.107

September 12th

_First time going camping to train with only my Pokémon! _

* * *

"So if you can learn ancient power, then you can evolve," Dawn explained to the Tangela as they made their way down to breakfast the next morning.

Medusa, as she had consented to be called, nodded. She could live with learning a rock type move. It would help her put up a fight against any flying or fire types, enough for them to realize that she wasn't to be messed around with.

Perhaps that Kirlia had been correct. Perhaps this girl, young as she was, actually knew what she was doing.

The girl laid out Pokémon food for all of them and Medusa very nearly took that assessment of her back. It wasn't actual food, but the dry stuff humans fed Pokémon instead of the real thing. She made a face at the bowl filled with the dry brown round stuff.

"Eat up, guys," the girl said. "We're going to be outdoors, and the food might not be dry in that weather."

The Kirlia took a seat at her side and pointed out the team to her. Apparently, he had chosen to take on the role of the guide to her. "The Prinplup is Neptune," he said, gesturing to the chubby blue bird with the attitude. "He's Dawn's starter, and the leader of the team."

He sounded awfully hesitant about that. When she commented on it, though, he shook it off. "It's not really my place to comment," he said stiffly.

So he wasn't one for gossip.

He continued dutifully, moving on as fast as he could. "Then there's Sekhmet, the Luxio. She's the second-in-command."

The electric type with the dark blue fur looked up from her bowl of food with a sharp grin. Medusa had to admit – but only to herself – that the fangs in the predator's mouth looked awfully sharp, and her eyes were just as piercing.

She looked more like a leader than the fat bird did, and Medusa muttered that under her breath to her self-appointed guide. Much to her amusement, he choked on his kibble and she had to pat him on his back with her vines until his breathing cleared.

"Er, well, um," he sputtered, at a loss for words. In the end he decided to move on without further comments. "The Golbat is Themis. She's the flier."

It looked like he had a label for everyone on the team. Nothing insulting, but rather denoting a position. She didn't voice that observation out loud.

"And the Eevee is Faith." He waved to the small bundle of brown fur, who noticed and wagged her tail back in reply since her mouth was full of food. "Her agility allows her to dodge hits and wear down foes. She may change when she evolves, however."

"So that's everyone?" she asked, scooping some of the kibble with her vine into her mouth. It wasn't exactly bad, but it was bland despite the crunchy texture. And it would definitely get boring if she kept eating it.

"For now, on hand," he said. "There are others, but trainers only carry around six at a time."

She already knew that, but she chose not to mention it. Instead she put some more kibble into her mouth and chewed.

"Back home," he continued, "there's Minerva, a Noctowl, Frejya, a Buneary, and Selene, a Ralts. Selene is my sister."

He'd mentioned something about a sister before. "She caught both of you?" Medusa asked, around the mouthful of kibble-mush.

Helios nodded. "She's a good human," he said, sounding very much like a devout believer.

She wasn't sure whether to envy or pity him for having such stout faith in his human. She chose to withhold judgement for now and eat.

The kibble was already boring to her taste buds. She still ate all of it, and accepted a second helping when the girl offered. Nutrients were nutrients, after all.

* * *

After all her Pokémon were fed, Dawn returned Sekhmet, Neptune and Helios, leaving out Themis, Faith and Medusa.

She hadn't actually intended to name the Tangela 'Medusa'. She'd been hoping to give her a name like 'Demeter' or 'Pomona' or even 'Alectrona', which had been a pretty cool name in her opinion, but the grass type had rejected them all. She had, however, paused when Dawn offered 'Medusa' randomly, and hadn't turned it down like she had the others.

If she wanted to, she was welcome to switch it. But in the mean time, she was Medusa.

Dawn had Medusa walking with her because she wanted to observe her while she was out of battle. So far all she'd seen of the Tangela was that she was a bit hostile, but not unwilling to be trained. She was hoping she would get the chance to see more of her personality.

Faith was also out because she was rather bold even with strangers. The Eevee had no qualms about being friendly or up close, and that was something Dawn hoped would break down the reservations Medusa clearly had.

Themis was out, mostly so the Golbat could stretch her wings and keep an eye out for any possible threats from the air. They were wandering off the routes, and she didn't want to be walking straight into danger on the first day camping in the wild.

Route 212 was supposed to have good weather for the next three days, so Dawn had chosen the area near there over the forests around Valor Lakefront. It was a place where a lot of wild water Pokémon resided, so they'd get ample practice on fighting water types for the Pastoria Gym. Then, when bad weather returned to the usually rainy area, she could move over and camp out on the other side of Pastoria City near Valor Lake.

That was the plan, and she hoped nothing would go wrong.

* * *

They set up camp at what seemed to be a good spot. It was on higher ground than the nearest body of water, a stream fifty meters away, under the branches of a medium sized tree.

She pounded stakes in a circle around the campsite, giving her enough space for the gas stove, the tent and wiggle room for all of her Pokémon in its boundaries. Once the stakes were up, she put repel pellets in them. Her Pokémon wrinkled their noses at the scent. Personally, she found the scent to be nice, but it was supposed to ward off wild Pokémon from coming too close. She supposed it made sense that Pokémon would find the smell to be displeasing.

The first day, they spent seriously sparring with each other and battling wild Pokémon. Medusa was, like she had guessed, excellent against water types. She liked to use vine whip to trip up or drag her opponents before using mega drain to finish them up. Dawn wanted to work on her poison powder technique with her, and so they experimented with how far Medusa could spread them.

"Water types are pretty good at endurance," she explained. "So if we can poison them, we're whittling away their health – one of their best attributes. They'll be fighting us as well as time."

Neptune grimaced, probably remembering all the times he'd been poisoned.

"Helios, I'm going to be using you against the trainers at the gym," she continued on. "Your magical leaf should be good enough to take down any water and ground types. Sekhmet can deal with all the other water types that come our way."

Sekhmet shook out her fur and raised her head proudly. Helios, however, looked at her and made a small chopping gesture with worry in his eyes.

She smiled. "Don't worry, we're still going to be working on your physical attacks as well. You're still going to evolve into a Gallade, mister. I bought an everstone for you to hold onto so you wouldn't randomly evolve into a Gardevoir. Don't lose it, okay?"

The Kirlia relaxed, and took the small white stone she offered. He slipped it into the mysterious unknown place Pokémon seemed to store items in, and then stood at attention once more.

"Themis, Faith, you won't be doing much at this gym, I'm afraid," she continued on. "But that's no excuse to not do anything, right?"

Faith squealed, while Themis smirked. "You guys can help the others with endurance training," she said. "Run around, help them keep pace and on their toes with things like sand attack, swift and air cutter. But also, I want you guys to be on guard. We're on wild Pokémon territory, and you guys are the best lookouts. Keep an eye out for any dangers, and warn us if anything gets too near."

And then, there was one. "Neptune," she addressed her starter. "As the water type, you're going to be suffering a bit, I'm afraid."

He only sniffed and held his back straight, shoulders squared. "You're the one that we're going to be practicing our strategies on," she said. "We might use you in the gym challenge, since there's going to be a water field on the arena, and you're probably the one that'll be best suited for fighting in it, but we'll see."

Sekhmet snickered. Neptune glowered at her, but nodded stiffly. The rest of the team shuffled a bit awkwardly as the leader and the second-in-command ignored each other.

Dawn sighed. There was still some tension between the team. Maybe when they got back to civilization, she could have them all play a game of capture the flag or something. A game that would force cooperation or loss.

Perhaps that would break up the strain in her team a little bit.

While everyone trained, Dawn dug out the HM for fly and taught the move to Themis. Fly was a restricted move, like all the hidden machine moves, and required three badges. She plugged in her three badges – the Coal, Forest and Cobble Badges – into the slots the thick machine had, and then placed it on her Golbat's head once it activated, humming and coming to life.

Themis closed her eyes, and then the machine let out a chiming sound to inform her that its job was complete. She pulled her badges out of the machine so it would power down and placed them back in her badge case. "Can you try using the new move to fly?" she asked.

Nodding, Themis let her body be enveloped by a bubble of blue light before she soared up. A few moments later, the bubble of light came plunging back down to the ground, and wore off to reveal a grinning Themis.

Fly. It was apparently a technique that worked better than just regularly flying on the back of a Pokémon capable of flight and carrying someone because it enveloped the Pokémon – and the rider, if there was one – in an energy field that protected them from almost anything. It also allowed for extremely quick transportation, allowing people to travel across a country in the span of hours, or less.

There were limitations, of course. Psychic types had found a way to prevent entry through the use of fly, which meant that simply using fly to get into another country was prohibited. Also, flying to different locations required for the rider to have been to said location before. She was still a little unsure about the mechanics of it, but apparently it had something to do with the subconscious psychic abilities of every Pokémon. They could pick up the location's basic coordinates from the memories through the use of the move.

But the important thing was that Themis had learned it.

"Nicely done," Dawn told her. "Work on that, alright? We'll see if you can fly me around when you've got the technique down."

Themis let out a few chirping sounds, and then flew up once more, enveloped in the protective aura again.

They trained until night fell, and Dawn checked them for any injuries they may have sustained. Her bag looked like an entire pharmacy had been emptied into it – and consequently, her wallet was an awful lot lighter – but she felt more prepared in the case that something happened.

The next day, they refreshed the repel pellets in the stakes around their campsite and then went a bit away from the tent to train. Sekhmet picked a few fights with the Shellos, and then had to back off when the Gastrodon got involved.

Medusa scoffed when Sekhmet scrambled back, narrowly avoiding the mud bomb thrown her way. She threw forth a mega drain bulb, and then harassed the large slug with vine whips to the face until the Gastrodon ran away. Or crawled and then swam away.

Helios sighed and buried his face into his hands, pretty much the embodiment of Dawn's exasperation at the moment. Even the Kirlia's patience was running low today. A few wild Kirlia had waved and danced flirtingly on the other side of the riverbank while he'd been jogging by with Faith and Themis attacking him to work on his dodging, and one of them had even thrown him a rose taken from who knows where. He'd been quite flustered ever since that encounter.

Soon, though, her exasperation wore off. When a pack of Staravia decided to pick on Medusa, it was Sekhmet who chased them away. Grudgingly, Medusa nodded her thanks towards the lynx.

Dawn went down to the stream, and filled a bucket with mud. It was heavy, but she lugged it back onto flat ground. "Alright, Sekhmet," she called to the Luxio. "Time to get down and dirty."

Sekhmet made a face, but came forwards as Dawn shaped the mud into balls with her hand. The mud was cold, and her fingers were going numb, but Dawn ignored that.

"Ready?" she asked once she had a few mud balls at the ready. Neptune stood at her side, looking far too happy with his job than was really appropriate. "I'm going to throw mud, and Neptune's going to be using bubble beam. You have to work on dodging them to the best of your ability."

The ground was already saturated with Neptune's water sport, and Sekhmet's paws sunk into it, covering her claws. In an environment tailored to be incapacitating for electric types, she wanted to see how Sekhmet could handle herself. She would recall her if any water and ground types came up, but there was no knowing what Crasher Wake could do to change up the field before Sekhmet could come out.

Her Luxio nodded, and Dawn began flinging the mud balls. Sekhmet twisted and jumped, avoiding the worst of the mud balls thrown her way. It got harder to dodge the projectiles, however, as Neptune added in his bubble beam, and soon her dark blue coat was streaked with mud all over. Despite that, she still continued to duck and weave to the best of her abilities even as her movements grew slower and slower. She was really pulling through with this.

Training Sekhmet to deal with mud and shake it off was relatively easy. There was an abundance of mud around, and while she didn't have a ground type herself they could always make do with ease. The problem was preparing Medusa for ice type moves that the water Pokémon would no doubt have to deal with grass types.

Sekhmet ducked to avoid getting her face splattered with mud, and then yowled when a bubble beam exploded in her eyes. Hissing, she drew back, and then was plastered in the side with a mud bomb.

"Keep your calm," Dawn called, lightly nudging Neptune to remind him that they were training, not trying to annoy each other. "You can't lose your temper at the gym."

Sekhmet glared at Neptune, and then shook out her coat to the best of her abilities. Some of the mud was shaken off, but her fur stuck out at odd angles in different places, making her look a little bedraggled. She snarled when Neptune guffawed in her direction.

"Neptune," Dawn said, wondering why all of a sudden these two weren't getting along with each other. It wasn't like they had _just_ evolved or anything, so neither of them had any particular reason to be acting like this. Maybe they'd been withholding frustrations towards each other for a while now, and now that they had begun releasing them, they couldn't stop long enough to forgive, forget and move on with it. "Stop making fun of Sekhmet."

Her starter stopped. For now.

After three bucketfuls of mud being chucked at Sekhmet, Dawn decided that her Luxio had gone through enough torture. "Don't use electricity," she warned as she mixed cooler water from the stream with water boiled on the gas lighter. She dipped the back of her hand in the bucket – cleaned of mud – to check the temperature, and when it was warm enough poured it over Sekhmet to wash the mud out. She had to do that a few more times until all the mud was out of her fur.

Sekhmet, completely dripping and looking rather drowned, glared at a snickering Neptune before shaking herself out. Dawn cringed and sputtered at the sudden splattering of water against her, and opened her eyes to find Sekhmet with her fur sticking out everywhere.

"Neptune," she told the Prinplup before he could continue sniggering. "Go and help Helios. Spar with him or something. Have him use magical leaf on you so you can catch it or something."

He let out one last snicker before he went off, crowing something.

Once Neptune was banished, Dawn took out a thick comb and began to untangle Sekhmet's fur. The Luxio was normally quite neat, and required minor brushing and maintenance, but this wasn't the usual circumstances. "You did great," she said, trying to tug the comb's teeth through the tough, knotted fur without hurting her too much. "We'll work on strengthening now. Do you think you can work on running? It's important that you can last as long as water types."

Sekhmet glared in the direction Neptune had gone before nodding.

Dawn sighed and put the comb – now with dark blue fur entangled in its teeth – down on the ground and patted her head. "Don't fight," she pleaded as she used her fingers to comb the hair on her head. The mane was softest here, but even in this part the fur was tangled and stiff from being wet.

The Luxio's lips curled. 'Tell _him_ that', she seemed to say.

She patted her head one last time, arranging it into a somewhat acceptable style. "Go run laps," she told the Sekhmet. "Stay in sight, and if you run into anything, howl as loud as you can, alright?"

Sekhmet licked her paw and then ran off. Faith joined her, and the two of them began racing, helping each other keep pace and improve their speed.

That left Medusa. She didn't have ice cubes she could start flinging at the Tangela, and no one on her team knew any ice type moves. They would have to focus more on technique than upping the defenses.

"How focused can you make your poison powder?" she asked. The previous day, their focus had been on how far they could make the purple powders go. Now she wanted to see how well Medusa could aim it.

As the walking tangle of vines began to demonstrate how she could concentrate the spores into little pods of powder and throw them farther than in loose spore form, Dawn decided that she'd stay for another night. They needed to train, and maybe being outdoors to work with each other could help solidify the team dynamic.

* * *

Faith laughed when the larger Luxio nearly tripped over her paws. "Careful!" she called, turning her head to look behind and make sure that Sekhmet was running after her. She loved running, loved the feeling of wind running through her fur, the ground flying out from under her feet, the sound of rushing air in her ears. It let her feel lighter, and her worries didn't bother her as much.

Not that she was usually worried about much. Sometimes she worried about not winning battles, or about what she would evolve into, but life was alright right now. She didn't have to worry –

"Oomph!" Her thought was cut off as she ran into something strong covered in fur. She looked up to see a Buizel glowering down at her. "Oops," she said, lowering her ears. "Sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it," the orange water type spat. He looked above her head afterwards, however, and his ears flattened along his skull.

"Well, it's going to have to," Sekhmet replied, coming up. A tail with a four-pointed yellow star wrapped around Faith and tugged her backwards. Recognizing the cue, Faith backed up and hid behind Sekhmet. Here the Luxio had the advantage – it was better to let her take care of it than to interfere and get in the way.

The Buizel tried to keep up his intimidating stare, but it was nothing compared to Sekhmet's glare. Eventually he broke the gaze, looking away, and shuffled off.

"You alright?" Sekhmet asked.

"I'm fine," Faith chirped, glad that the standoff had come to an end without coming to blows. "Race you back!"

Before Sekhmet could reply, she turned and began running back. Behind her, she heard Sekhmet shout something in indignant fury and the sound of paws padding away at the ground, and she laughed.

* * *

None of her Pokémon were opposed to the suggestion of staying behind a second night when the sun fell and the clearing was plunged into darkness. They seemed to enjoy the time spent outdoors, even if it meant giving up on certain comforts. Like indoor plumbing. Or a Pokémon Center nearby to fix up any wounds quickly. Or convenient food.

Maybe it was just her. Still, as she gave out the Pokémon kibble to everyone and dug into her instant meal of noodles and hot spicy broth, she had to admit that this was nice. The instant noodles, normally so good in the way cheap food appealed to the taste buds, tasted even better in the slightly chill air of the outdoors, away from everything except nature.

After dinner, Neptune and Helios helped put the dishes away. Faith tried to help in her own way, but after she accidentally knocked the pot back into the dirt, Themis called her away. Helios brushed off the dirt, eyes glowing, and then handed it to Neptune for a light washing.

"Since it's dark," Dawn called to Sekhmet. "Can you try charge? I want to see if you'll be able to light up the area like flash."

The Luxio licked her paw, washing the last trace of the dirt out of her fur, and then stood up, once again groomed to her liking. The electricity crackled up from her claws and buzzed in her fur as she let her body's energy build up.

The results were mixed. On one hand, she _did_ let off light in the form of sparks veined across her body, but it wasn't consistent, or wide enough to really light up the area. Her fur being dark didn't help matters either.

On the other hand, that was a pretty strong charge she had. In the past her charge had looked more like her eyes, forepaw rings and yellow star of the tail were glowing while her fur crackled from static electricity, but now there were actual visible sparks coming off of her coat, and it came to her faster than before.

"Hey Sekhmet," she asked, putting the last dish away and wiping off the water onto the fabric of her pants. "How did you do the charge-spark combo before? Did you keep up the charge as you sparked?"

Sekhmet shook her head.

"Can you try that?"

The Luxio considered it, but before she could give an answer, Faith ran back, letting out high-pitched yelps. She was jumping around too much for Dawn to try and interpret what she was trying to convey, but whatever it was, she had the other Pokémon turn in panic and face towards the woods.

"What's wrong?" she asked, on guard. She grabbed her bag – the one where all her Poké balls and medicine were – and held it close in case she needed it. "Faith, where's Themis?"

She was answered when the Golbat dropped out of the sky, leathery wings making a few flapping sounds. Themis, like all of the others, was on guard.

Her eyes were probably the worst in night's darkness out of all the team – she wasn't sure how good Medusa's eyesight was – so she squinted into the shadows of the trees, hoping to see just what had her Pokémon so on edge.

Out of the darkness crept out a Buizel. And then another. And then another. And they just kept coming out until there had to be at least twenty Buizel.

They were completely surrounded, Dawn realized, by a bunch of angry Buizel. At the head of the group of orange water mammals stood a Floatzel, who, like a stereotypical villain in a kid's movie, had a scar over one eye.

Except this wasn't a movie, and they were all in big danger. While her Pokémon could probably take on at least two of them each at the same time, there was no doubt that the wild Pokémon would fight dirty and gang up on them.

Dawn took a deep breath, trying very hard to not show her fear. Perhaps the Floatzel and Buizel would leave them alone and go their own way. As far as she knew, they hadn't invaded their territory or stolen anything, and the repel were still pretty strong.

As if it had read her mind, the Floatzel stepped forwards, crouched and ready to spring. Its teeth were bared in a silent, threatening snarl.

Much as she would have liked not to, Dawn maintained eye contact. Looking away was admitting weakness. If she was perceived as weak, she had no doubt that the Buizel and Floatzel would spring on them all.

But what would she do if they sprang?

Sekhmet could probably take out a few Buizel on her own, provided that she had a clear shot. Faith could slip through their attacks easily, given her smaller stature, but her size would be a disadvantage in the long run, preventing her from being able to fight back on the same level. Helios knew magical leaf, and while his special attack wasn't the best there was still something to be said about shots that didn't miss no matter how agile their opponents were. Neptune could grapple with them, maybe, and distract them with bubble beam. Themis had it the easiest, as she could simply fly up and out of range and use air cutter from above.

Medusa was the unknown factor. She knew mega drain, and could cause some status havoc with the water types, but Dawn wasn't sure if the Tangela would stick around. They still weren't exactly what one could call closely knit together. There would be nothing keeping her from simply skipping out and returning to the wild.

She put those thoughts out of her mind. Insecurity wasn't what she needed right now. Perhaps she could talk to the Floatzel, and have her Pokémon translate her thoughts.

Unfortunately, right then and there, the Floatzel decided to order an attack. It raised a paw and let out a howl. The Buizel jumped forwards, screaming and barking.

* * *

When the presence touched their minds in a manner none of them were used to, the Pokémon all stiffened. Helios bit back a curse and silently begged the gods to not have any of them react too badly to his attempt at establishing a communication channel between all of their minds. His mother had done it with a few of the local Pokémon back when he and Selene had been wild and living with her, and he hoped he was doing it right.

_Please don't be too alarmed_, he thought hard, hoping that his message would go across.

_Helios? What is this?_ Neptune's 'voice' was distinct. Haughty, proud, mixed with suspicion and edged with tension.

_A way for us to talk without those annoying water types overhearing, birdbrain,_ Sekhmet 'said' snidely.

_Stop arguing please,_ Helios thought tensely, 'voice' more cutting and impatient than he usually would have been. This, however, wasn't the time to be polite and bite back his tongue. _This takes up a lot of my concentration, and I'd really not like for it to be used for the sake of immature arguments in the middle of an emergency._

Both of their minds felt indignant, but thankfully they didn't go any further in hurling insults at each other.

_So?_ Themis 'asked'. Her 'words' were mixed with images from her aerial point of view, where she saw them surrounded by the Buizel. _What do we do?_

_Protect Dawn_, Neptune 'said' immediately. _There's no way she'll be able to survive the attacks from all of these – _he thought a very rude word that had Faith cringing. _I want her protected at all time._ _Sekhmet, stay back with her and keep her safe. I'll take on the leader, and – _

_Are you _insane? Sekhmet was outraged at being told to sit back and protect Dawn while he fought, and her thoughts were viciously tinted with the emotion. I'm_ the electric type, _I'm_ the best one for this job. _I'll_ take on that Floatzel, _you_ stay with Dawn. _In her words, there was a fierce determination to . . . set things right? That couldn't be right.

Neptune could practically be heard huffing in exasperation._ This isn't the time to be arguing!_

_It is if you give stupid orders!_

_Technically, _I'm_ the best bet against the Floatzel_, a snide 'voice' interjected before Neptune could reply. All of the Pokémon felt confused at the new voice's identity, but only Helios was familiar enough to recognize it as Medusa's. _You know, since I'm a grass type and I resist water attacks. Just saying._

This was _not_ the time for this_. Please_, he thought, struggling to send pacifying emotions to the Floatzel and Buizel in hopes of calming them down while maintaining the telepathy. He gave up his attempt at pacification when the connection between them all nearly broke, and focused on maintaining communication_. Don't argue. What do we do?_

_Protect Dawn!_ Faith echoed Neptune's earlier thoughts. Now that the leaders weren't arguing, they had ideas coming out. _Themis should take her to safety, since she can fly! At least up a tree or something._

The Golbat was startled at that. _But what about the rest of you?_

Neptune's thoughts were grim. _We beat them, of course_, he thought, but he had less control over the telepathy, and everyone felt his worries that they wouldn't come out victorious.

_Right. So, _I'll_ take on the Floatzel – don't you argue with me, Neptune, you know I'm the best one for the job._

_We should have you working on fighting as many Buizel as possible so we can decrease their numbers quickly, not have you focused on one foe!_

_And if they lose their leader, you think they're going to stick around?_

_The power is in the pack – if they lose their numbers, they won't hold the advantage._

If they had not been in a standstill where everyone on both sides was tensely staring down each other, Sekhmet would have snarled in frustration_. Then have Medusa take on the other Buizel. _

_Hi,_ Medusa's 'voice' was sarcastic. _I'm still here. You know, alive and capable of speaking for myself, even if you two seem determined to hog the conversation._

_Helios_, Faith addressed him suddenly. _You_ _won't be able to hold this up while we're fighting, right?_

Helios was a little startled at being called out. _Probably not, Faith_, he thought. This took up a lot of his concentration. He couldn't even feel the minds of the nearest Buizel, and he was beginning to get tired.

The Eevee nodded slightly from her spot next to him, her eyes still focused on the Buizel surrounding them. She stared in particular at the Buizel on the right hand side of the Floatzel, and her emotion at that moment was a surprising amount of fury. _Then we better choose who's doing what quickly. Guys!_

Neptune and Sekhmet stopped squabbling.

_Sekhmet should take on the Floatzel, and Medusa should fight the Buizel, but I think Neptune should play the role of the sniper._

_The what? _Themis, Helios and Sekhmet all thought, and they picked up some curiosity from Neptune and Medusa.

_Sorry, Bebe played a lot of video games. _Sheepishness radiated off of the Eevee from her side of the link_. She rubbed off on me._

_Focus, Faith_, Themis reminded her gently.

_Right. Um, so Neptune should kind of stay out of the fight and help by hitting enemies with bubble beam. Kind of like this! _

They were suddenly flooded with a vivid memory of a large screen, where a Kingdra was shooting dragon pulses down into a field of what looked like a Pokémon war. The water dragon was shooting down Pokémon on the enemy's side about to strike allies down. Helios was surprised at the clarity of the memory Faith showed them all.

_This way, Neptune can hurt or at the very least distract the Buizel before they can hurt us, see?_

_She's got a point_. Helios was quick with his support. Faith's contribution, while surprising, had a lot of merit. Neptune's best attribute, unlike Sekhmet's, was his special attack. In close melee range, he wouldn't be as effective as the Luxio could be. That was what Dawn was always telling them.

_I like it,_ Themis 'said'.

The leader and the second-in-command were silent for a moment, and then they both sent their silent agreement. _Themis_, Neptune 'said' grimly. _Get ready to fly Dawn to safety. She's taught you fly, right?_

_Yeah_, the Golbat replied. _We haven't practiced it with me carrying a passenger yet, but I should be able to snatch her up and get her to safety. Just hold them off away from me, alright? I don't want to drop her in midair because some asshole Buizel hit me while I was trying to figure out how to fly with her._

_Got it_. Neptune hesitated, and then they all felt the 'what-the-heck' from him_. Good luck, all of you._

_Heh, likewise, birdbrain._

Medusa feigned boredom. _I better get to evolve, pretty boy_, she thought, specifically directing her 'words' to Helios.

Helios wanted to laugh. She was nervous, but she was trying to cover up her worry by pretending to not care. _You and me both, Medusa_, he thought back, and was half-pleased to feel the grass type stir in surprise from the sardonic tone his thoughts took.

Then, he had to break off the link when the Floatzel barked out an order. "Attack!" the big water type rasped, and the Buizel around him obeyed.

Helios took a battle stance, and then, with eyes glowing, he began to pull off leaves nearby and imbuing them with magical spells.

* * *

In the face of Buizel leaping at her, Dawn held up her bag, ready to use it as either a weapon or a shield while digging in it for empty Poké balls or something, when fangs bit into the back of her jumper and yanked her up, out of the water type's reach. She yelped, but saw the tips of purple leathery wings flapping around her head.

Themis.

Her Golbat abruptly swerved, and Dawn yelped in surprise again as she felt the cloth tear a bit at the area Themis was biting at. A ball of compressed water shot past them, flying over where Themis had been a few seconds ago. The blue air that was fly sprang up around them, and the next water gun slid off of its protective covering without hitting the inhabitants.

"Thanks, girl," she gasped. "Just drop me off on the top of the tree, and I'll be fine. Please help the others."

Themis flew up higher, and then placed her in the branches of the tree she had set up her tent under. She gingerly let Dawn off, and hovered in case she slipped.

She nearly did slip several times, and her hand felt like it had a few splinters in it, but she was firm and secure. "I'm good," she said, still gripping her bag. She had empty Poké balls she could throw at the Buizel down below. She didn't expect them to catch the Pokémon, but they could serve to confuse the enemy, disorienting them enough to give her team a better chance. "Help them, please!"

Themis almost whistled as she turned around and flew towards the fight, where orange mammals were crawling all over her team.

While she dug through her bag and scrolled down the item storage for the Poké balls she had, she kept an eye out on the brawl going on. She was proud to say that her Pokémon were doing great – she had trained them well.

Faith wove in and out between Buizel, lunging away from their attacks before retaliating with either sand attacks or swifts. Neptune had somehow managed to get away from the main concentration of attacking Buizel, and was shooting at their faces with bubble beam to hurt their eyes and distract them from the fight. Helios, despite his less-trained special attack, was still a menace to the water types, manually ripping out leaves from nearby bushes and throwing them into the air where they began floating, glowing with his magic, before flying at his targets.

Even Medusa was fighting, using her vines to tangle up and trip the fast Buizel. They may have been fast on their feet, but that speed worked against them when she casually ensnared them with her vines before mega draining them. She took the physical hits extremely well, and simply recovered her health by stealing theirs away with mega drain bulbs she planted down onto their orange hides. She was a superstar, having tied up two unconscious Buizel already with their tails and moved on to help out the others.

And Sekhmet . . . .

As Dawn took out her Poké balls and took aim at the Buizel, she had to smile at just how well her Luxio was doing. The Floatzel was huge, and strong at that, but Sekhmet was snarling and leering him down to size. Her fur was crackling with the charged electricity she had, and she was circling with the leader, just looking for the right time to tackle him with a charged spark.

She had this. Dawn took aim, and then threw the ball in her hand at a Buizel about to lunge down on Faith, who was engaged with taunting another Buizel. Her Eevee turned around just in time to see her foe disappear into energy form. It managed to break out after a few moments, but by then Themis had helped Faith deal with her Buizel, and the two of them were more than ready to fight the disoriented Buizel together.

But they were also taking damage. Helios fell when two Buizel double teamed him with pursuits, and while Medusa tried to hold them off from attacking him any further, she had been facing two Buizel of her own. Even she and her long vines couldn't hold off four of them at the same time.

Dawn threw a few more Poké balls their way. One ball missed, but the rest absorbed the two nearest to Helios. By the time the water types had broken out, she already had the Kirlia's ball out and was returning him. Thankfully, he was returned before the Buizel could use pursuit to chase after him.

She tossed her last Poké ball in the direction of the foes that had turned on Medusa, and then reached for her great balls. She only had three of them, and a few specialty balls that would hopefully do the job as well.

And then the part of the tree trunk right next to her head was hit with a water gun.

Dawn had been digging through her bag with both her hands, trying to get as many balls out as soon as possible. She had assumed that her legs could hold her on the branch properly.

They could, but not when the tree was shaken up by hits of compressed water and she was caught by surprise and fear. Her arms flailed instinctively, and gripped the dripping trunk next to her head before she could slip off and fall. She wasn't so lucky, however, with her possessions. She let out a curse as her bag slipped from her lap and fell to the ground, out of her reach. Her Kirlia's Poké ball was still in her pocket, thanks to her habit of stuffing her Poké balls into her pocket rather than her bag in the heat of the moment, but he was still unconscious, and all of her medicines were in the bag.

Sekhmet yowled, and charged. The Floatzel, barking angrily, slammed down its arms on her head, stopping her electric charge at its torso. The spark's electricity must have hurt it, yet it only snorted and kicked her in her chest, throwing her away from him.

"Sekhmet!"

Her Luxio got to her feet, baring her teeth at the grinning Floatzel. She began to run electricity around her body once more, warning the water type that she would shock it into oblivion.

When a bubble beam out of nowhere hit the side of its head, the Floatzel blinked in confusion. Sekhmet took the opportunity that Neptune had given her to charge at the water type once more. She didn't have ranged attacks. She didn't have skills she could use from the distance.

But what she had was physical strength, and the willpower to push through. And she would be damned if she let this orange thing take her down.

As she struck the Floatzel, she began to glow. She continued to bite and tackle the leader of the Buizel back even as she grew, and shifted in body shape.

When the light in the middle of the darkness faded, she was taller, and a Luxray. She roared, and the sound was deeper than before. It was the roar of a predator, the kind that any sentient being had evolved to fear and be wary of. The sound struck fear deep into the core of everyone there.

The Floatzel, eyes narrowed in acknowledgement of the new threat, barked out an order. Two Buizel disengaged from fighting with the combo of Faith and Themis, and lunged towards Sekhmet.

She snarled, and began to charge electricity over her body, but the sparks faltered. When she stiffened in surprise at how her body didn't seem to be responding to her wishes, the Buizel were on her, clawing and biting and pounding.

"Neptune, help her! Water sport over them, bubble beam with max water!"

Her starter hit the Buizel dragging down Sekhmet with water-laden bubbles. "Sekhmet, try to shock them! Even a small charge!"

The idea was that the water-laden bubbles would soak the Buizel, and allow for the electricity to better conduct, hopefully shocking them even with a smaller charge. Unfortunately, the electricity only fizzled around Sekhmet, even around her newly-grown mane of dark fur. The Buizel flinched, but they were able to bear it.

Dawn looked around. Themis was held up by two Buizel trying to gun her down with compressed water, and while Faith ran at the two, using quick attack and swift and even growl in a desperate attempt to help her teammate, she wasn't doing as much to help. Medusa was still stuck holding off the majority of the remaining five Buizel, although she was now releasing poison powder in a desperate attempt to finish them off quickly.

Helios was down. Sekhmet was suffering. Her Pokémon's balls were in the bag she had stupidly dropped. If only she had done the smart thing and looped its straps around her body. If only she had been holding on properly to the tree as she dug through the bag. If only she had had the foresight to keep her Pokémon's balls on her person so she could recall them back to her.

But she hadn't, and now there were nine Buizel and a Floatzel facing down five of her Pokémon. Sekhmet – one of their best chances against them – was practically out of the fight.

"Neptune!" she called. He was her only hope. "Help her!"

The leader, who was beginning to recover, was lumbering towards the held-down Sekhmet with a grin on its jaw. It began to rear back, ready to strike, when a blue bird all but flew into its face, beak plucking angrily and glowing metal claws jabbing as fast as possible. He snarled, and punched Neptune – who had abandoned his safe spot as a sniper – in the face and neck. Her starter let out a choked cry and slumped, although he did stab at the leader's leg with one last metal claw.

In retaliation, the Floatzel stomped on the back of Neptune's head, grinding his face into the grass-covered ground.

Dawn let out a horrified cry at that, but Themis let out a warning sound as she looked towards her. _Don't come down_, she was saying even as she swung her powerful, leathery wings to slam into her enemy Buizel's head. She spun and flew back into the air, letting another air cutter neutralize the water guns aimed her way. Themis was holding her own, but that was just a stalemate. She was in no position to go and help out Sekhmet or Neptune.

She let out a growl of frustration at her helplessness. "Mespirit!" she shouted, hoping a ranger or trainer was nearby. "Someone help!"

In response to that, the sky exploded in lightning and thunder. She screamed in surprise, and nearly fell off again. She would have, had she not learned from her previous blunder and been holding on tight to the tree.

When she blinked the spots out from her eyes, she saw gleaming gold in the dark. There was a sound in the air, but after the explosive sound that had followed the burst of light, her ears were still ringing. It took her a while to place the sound of Luxio – a _lot_ of them – growling.

This could _not_ possibly get any worse.

Another Luxray – one with a bigger mane than Sekhmet's, who looked taller and more confident, like it had been in its final evolved form for far longer – stepped forwards and let out a low growl, gleaming gold eyes narrowed angrily. The Floatzel hesitated, but when the Luxray snarled, baring some sharp looking fangs, turned tail and barked out an order. The Buizel, every last one of them, perked up, and then followed the Floatzel as it left quickly. Some of the Buizel knocked unconscious on the ground were either shaken awake or thrown over a shoulder and carried, but others were left behind.

Dawn swallowed, her throat too dry for comfort. A hoard of Buizel, that had been fine. They'd been water types, and she didn't have any Pokémon with a weakness to water types. They had advantages, they could deal.

But Luxio? Themis and Neptune were weak to electric types. Helios and Faith took neutral damage, but the Kirlia was unconscious and the Eevee didn't pack much of a punch. Sekhmet and Medusa could resist electric type attacks, but both were exhausted. Sekhmet, especially, after evolving into a Luxray, would be seriously lacking in nutrients and strength. She couldn't even use a charge or a spark.

The Luxray approached them, and looked down at Sekhmet, who still lay on the ground. He lowered his head.

"No!" she cried, the word flew out of her mouth before she could stop it. It was a stupid thing to do, calling attention to herself. Buizel shooting water guns at her had been bad enough, and she didn't need Luxio electrocuting the tree she sat in.

Still, Sekhmet was her Pokémon, and what kind of a trainer would she be if she just sat there in relative safety and watched her Pokémon get her throat ripped out?

Except . . . Sekhmet _didn't_ get her throat ripped out. The leader leaned down and almost seemed to _nuzzle_ Sekhmet's forehead.

Sekhmet, despite being proud and temperamental, didn't fight the way the other Luxray treated her either. She staggered and swayed in an attempt to stand, but when the Luxray shook its head – _shook its head unlike any wild __Pokémon__ she'd seen_ – stilled. Another Luxio bound up, and with sparking claws nudged Sekhmet gently.

Faith came towards Sekhmet, seemingly unsure. When she whined, Sekhmet seemed to explain something.

Her Eevee brightened considerably after that. She whined something out happily to the others, who were standing and gathering wearily but not defending themselves from an attack or getting ready to go on the defensive. Themis even flew towards her, and perched on the branch to offer her the option of getting on her back.

Dawn climbed on, grabbing the area around her ears as hard as she dared, and Themis flew her down. She picked up her bag and took out her potions. "Let me heal you guys," she said.

Neptune and Sekhmet, in their usual 'I'm too tough to need this' manner, refused treatment until the others had been seen to. Themis pushed Faith forwards to be looked at first, and while she sprayed over the Eevee, surprised everyone by pushing forward Medusa for the next treatment. The grass type glanced at the Golbat suspiciously, but Dawn smiled despite the tense situation they were in and gave her a quick spray before opening and handing her a bottle of water. Medusa was only tired from having expanded a lot of energy. In terms of health, she was probably in the best shape of them all.

The other Luxray looked at her with calm, golden eyes that made Dawn think of a wise old man as she approached Sekhmet, who was being licked by the Luxio. "You just evolved," she said when the newly evolved Luxray tried to protest at receiving treatment. "Hush."

She dissolved an effervescent medicine tablet into a bottle of water and helped Sekhmet, still lying on the ground, drink its fizzing contents. Once she was done with that, she debated on the merits of feeding her vitamins or berries before deciding that berries would probably help with the physical hunger better, and handed over all her oran berries to the Luxray. "Eat it all," she said.

The wild Luxray and Luxio growled something softly as well, and Sekhmet meekly ate the berries.

Dawn glanced at the wild Luxray as she grabbed a few more potions for Neptune. There had to be some kind of history there. No way did Sekhmet just sit down and listen to others, even when that other happened to be a strong looking Luxray that was a leader of its own tribe of Luxio.

Absorbed in her thoughts, Dawn didn't notice the state of Neptune's face until she looked up to see that her starter's face. "Mespirit!" she shrieked, and the area around them lit up as the Luxio tensed, letting electricity run through their fur.

The Luxray roared, and they instantly powered down, plunging the area into darkness once more. Her eyes had to struggle to adjust, but when she did, she could see the bad state Neptune's face was in even in the dim lighting provided by the moon. "Oh Mespirit, Neptune," she said, feeling like she was going to cry.

Neptune's face was a sight to see. There was a cut on his forehead, between the yellow 'V' formed by his crown's ridges, and it ran down all of his face. She cleared up the blood with her sleeve as best as she could, but saw the bruises on his face. Around his eye, next to his beak, under his chin . . . .

"Close your eyes," she said, and when he did, let the container spray the healing mist. He hissed, but closed his beak and let the medicine spread. "Oh, Neptune."

He coughed, and then opened his eyes to stare at her with a strong gaze. She smiled at him, worried but proud that he was so strong.

Themis gestured towards her pocket with her head when she tried to heal the Golbat. Dawn released Helios, who was stirring weakly, and gave him another bottle of water with an effervescent tablet. While he sipped that, she gave his wounds a spray with a potion. "Thanks," she said softly, and Helios gave her a weak thumbs-up and a nod of his head.

Then, she looked after Themis, whose wings were covered with scratches. Her eye was bruised, looking like it had been hit by either a Buizel's paw in a punch, or by compressed water from a water gun. Either way, Dawn made sure that she was alright.

When she turned around to look at everyone, they were all standing there, alive and alright. The Luxray and Luxio were gone, and Sekhmet was the only dark furred electric type, standing on her own paws and looking so large and fierce.

But everyone was tired, even when they didn't look it.

"Let's go back to civilization for now," she suggested, beginning to pack everything up. They didn't need the Floatzel coming back with his Buizel lackeys. The second time, they wouldn't be lucky enough to have a godsend pack of wild electric types interfere for their sake.

She looked towards the campsite, expecting to see the worst, and found herself pleasantly surprised. Although a few stakes had been knocked out of their places in the ground and the tent had taken a few water guns, making it a little misshaped, nothing too permanent had happened.

Wearily, her Pokémon waited while she took down the tent and returned it to item storage. She did the same with the stakes and sleeping bag and everything else, and grabbed the bag.

"I'm sorry guys," she apologized. "And thank you so much."

Neptune sniffed, and hit her elbow lightly with his flipper.

* * *

When she saw the sky flare up in a bright light, Sekhmet's first thought was that she was dead, and the ancestors of her tribes had opened the lighting fields up in the skies to let her hunt amongst them.

But then the Buizel's teeth had slipped, and she heard the roars. There were no words, just a furious warning for all those listening that true predators had come.

When the Floatzel barked out an order to retreat, Sekhmet was confused. They hadn't finished her off, so why . . . ?

She was answered when she saw the hazy figure of a Luxray walk towards her majestically. The wind shifted, blowing his scent in her face, and she recognized the familiar smell.

"Leader?" Sekhmet asked, a little awed. He hadn't changed since she'd left the tribe to find a human trainer to travel with, still large and radiating the very leader-like, impressive aura. It was just in the self-confident, proud way he carried himself that made everyone aware of his presence, setting him apart from other Luxray.

She wasn't dreaming, judging from the pain in her flanks and head, so he was still very much here, in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

She realized only after her question that Leader may not necessarily recognize her now. Her scent would have changed dramatically over months of travelling around Sinnoh with different Pokémon and Dawn, and she was no longer the small Shinx she'd been. Besides, as the leader of a tribe, he saw countless Shinx. He wouldn't have singled her out and remembered her.

Much to her surprise, however, Leader recognized her. "Ah, it seems you've grown much stronger," he said, eyes glinting in familiarity and recognition as he lowered her head to sniff at her wounds.

She struggled to get to her feet, not wanting to be lying on the ground while he spoke of her strength like a weakling.

However, he shook his head. "Don't move – you've put up quite a fight, and you are injured."

"Oh, you haven't fixed that reckless habit of yours, have you?" said another familiar voice. A Luxio slunk up, and with sparking claws began prodding over her body. Where the claws charged with electricity touched she felt a sting, but it was a good sting, like the relief she felt after scratching an itching spot on her skin. She felt bits of her electricity return to her through each sting, and smelt the scent familiar from deep within her old memories.

"Mother?" she asked.

The female Luxio sniffed. "I'm glad to see that you recognize me, even when you're a Luxray now," she said, prodding at her tail with her nose. "But really, such recklessness – I thought I raised you better!"

"You did," she said. There really wasn't much arguing with Mother.

"Sekhmet?" Faith asked, and shrunk back when both Leader and mother turned to look at her. "Um, what's going on?"

Leader's voice was kind. "We were just passing through on our way to see a psychic in the area when we heard this one roar," he explained patiently. "While you were admirably holding your own, we felt that the numbers were simply too unfair to stand by and watch without aiding, especially given this one's history with our tribe. I hope you don't mind our interference."

"They're alright," Sekhmet told her when Faith still looked unsure. "He's my leader from back when I was wild, and she's my mother."

Faith brightened. "Wow," she said. "What a coincidence! That's so cool, Sekhmet! Hey guys, guess who this is!"

Now that she wasn't focused on fighting and her breath was returning to her, she realized she could see so much better. The dark wasn't dark to her – she could pick out the details of the trees, the waving plants, the campsite in the distance, and the short human figure walking. Dawn was making her way over to her. "That's my trainer," Sekhmet pointed out.

"Good," Mother said with a sniff. "The human finally comes out of hiding while her monsters fight for her."

"We put her up there," Sekhmet replied. "We couldn't have her getting hurt."

Mother didn't look too happy, but Leader flicking his tail made her hold her tongue.

Sekhmet held off being treated, but Dawn couldn't be put off for long. Soon, the human was spraying her over with potions and letting her sip at water flavoured with something weird. When she gave her the berries, she only protested slightly before eating them, glad to get the taste out of her mouth.

While she ate, Mother fussed about her newly grown mane and longer fur. Leader sat, nearby and groomed his own mane.

"Have you achieved what you desired to find with a human trainer?" he asked her.

Sekhmet ducked her head, overwhelmed with embarrassment and pride and a myriad of other emotions she couldn't identify properly at the moment. "I have," she managed. "Thank you, Leader."

Leader laughed. "Don't thank me for the fruits of your hard labour," he said. "And, since you are now my equal, I would say you've earned the right to call me by my name – Luminous."

She stammered some kind of a reply out, and wasn't actually sure exactly what it was she said to him. Leader's name? Her hero and role model's? Her? _Equal_?

It was a great honour.

The moment broke when Dawn shrieked, and the Luxio around the forest – she could see them so clearly now, her eyes had such powerful vision – tensed, lighting up the area with their claws, tails and eyes.

"Power down!" Leader – Luminous – roared, and the tribe did so.

Sekhmet glanced to Dawn, who wasn't hurt, simply worrying over Neptune. Whatever the injury was, it must have been bad, or at least bad looking. He was turned away from her, so she couldn't see how bad it was. "She's a good human," she said as a way of explaining.

He simply nodded at her, accepting her explanation. "I must get going now, if we are to meet the psychic," he said. "Madame Gardevoir is very strict about punctual clients. I wish you luck on your journey, young warrior. What name are you called by now?"

"Sekhmet, Leader Luminous," she said, still nearly bowled over from the shock.

"Sekhmet. A strong name. May the gods light your path and may your roars thunder through the air, Sekhmet." He nodded one final time at her before turning around and bounding away in great leaps on his strong haunches.

Mother stayed briefly. "You've grown so strong," she said, nuzzling her. "Stronger than I am. Are you happy?"

"I am, mother," she replied. "I miss you . . . but this is my tribe and family now."

Mother's smile was sad. "I know," she said. "Good luck, Sekhmet. Make us proud."

"I will," she promised, and then Mother bound away after Leader Luminous.

* * *

Dawn's Team

On Hand: Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Faith (Eevee), Medusa (Tangela)

Home: Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts), Frejya (Buneary)

* * *

AN: April 16th 2015 is the anniversary of the _Sewol_ ferry sinking accident (may they rest in peace, and let us not forget them), so I was a little depressed when I was going over this. Apologies for any mistakes missed.

On a brighter note, I finally got a cover for Titanium! Credit for the image goes to Shion/Kizuro (?) or 詩音 (pixiv ID:137851), who was kind enough to give me permission to use it when I contacted him/her. I just cut out the part with the Sinnoh trio and slapped 'TITANIUM' onto it.

Fly - the mechanics are weird, yes, but that's something I'm hoping to expand more in the Hoenn story.

I was considering cutting this chapter in half, but I have bad news, so have some extra words.

That being said - bad news. I have exams coming up, and I'm afraid I really need to focus on them. Fanfiction is unfortunately too addicting, so I need to lay it aside for a while to focus. That means Titanium too (_especially_ Titanium) because my baby always draws me back in. This is going to be the last update for a while.

I'll be gone from fanfiction until the end of May, but I _promise_ you that the first update will be for this story. Apologies for whatever inconveniences this may cause you (I don't know how there would be inconveniences, but if there are, I'm sorry), hopefully you'll all be kind enough to not abandon me when I come back.

Thank you.


	21. Rising Will

A.S.107

September 15th

_Didn't get to visit Lake Valor . . . ._

* * *

The nurse on the night shift looked up when the door to the center slid open. "Hello," she said, remarkably chipper for someone at – Dawn checked the clock hanging behind her head – one in the morning.

"Hi," she said, handing over her trainer ID card and Poké balls. "Can I get my Pokémon healed?"

"Sure!"

While her Pokémon were getting looked at, Dawn decided to ask a few questions. "Um, miss," she called after the nurse had put her Poké balls into the healing machine and began restoring their health and energy.

"Yes?"

First things first, the issue of Sekhmet. "My Luxray just evolved, but she couldn't really use her electricity well. Is that normal, or will I have to get her some help?"

"A Luxray, huh?" the nurse said thoughtfully, glancing back at the healing machine. "The initial sweep didn't show anything wrong with her form. It might just be that she's extremely tired after evolving. I'll make sure her condition's at top shape, and that should solve the problem. After she's healed, let her eat and rest, and then when she's fully rested try having her use electricity again. If she still can't generate her electricity after that, then bring her back for a more thorough checkup."

She nodded, and dozed off at the waiting room on the squashed sofa while the nurse healed her Pokémon. The furniture's cushions were flat, thinned and cheap, but she was tired, and couldn't be bothered to care too much about the condition of the furniture she was sitting on.

"Dawn?" the nurse called, and she opened her eyes, lids heavy from bleariness. "Your Pokémon are done."

She stumbled out of her seat and very nearly bashed her knee on the edge of the coffee table. Wincing, she hobbled towards the counter.

"You look like you've had a really rough night," the nurse said as she passed the balls back to her. "Do you need a room to stay in?"

She'd forgotten about that. "Yes please," Dawn answered, grateful for the thoughtfulness of the nurse.

Smiling, the nurse typed in something into her computer, and then passed over a key card. "I hope you don't mind any rooms in the basement," she said. "The upstairs rooms are all taken. There's really no difference between the two, except that the upstairs one has a view into the Marsh."

"That's alright," Dawn said. The last thing she felt like was looking at a pretty view of the Marsh, filled with vicious water-types.

Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. No view of the great outdoors sounded pretty good at the moment. "Thank you. Good night."

"Good night," replied the nurse. Dawn, clutching the key card and her bag's strap, managed to get to the right room.

While the nurse had promised that the rooms were the same, minus the view, the lack of windows made the room feel smaller. She let Faith out of her Poké ball to keep her company, but decided against letting anyone else out. That would have made the room feel even more crowded than it already did.

"Night, Faith," she mumbled. She was a bit dirty, covered with bits of bark and dirt, but her teeth were brushed and she was too tired to care at the moment.

Her Eevee growled softly, and curled up next to her pillow as Dawn crawled into the bed and fell asleep.

* * *

The next day, Dawn came to around ten thirty. She groaned when she saw the time displayed on her Pokétch, and crawled out of bed.

Faith was on the ground, playing with her Poké ball. When Dawn got out of bed, she looked up.

The taste of her bed-breath was sickening, and she felt pretty bad, but she still managed a smile. "Morning, Faith," she said, glad to see the Eevee looking normal as ever after the trying ordeal last night.

The Eevee shook her tail in reply.

Dawn grabbed her toiletries and let Themis out into the room to keep Faith company before she left and took a shower. By now, no one was taking a shower in the center, and so the water was pretty warm. The hot water washing away the grime and sweat made her feel a lot better, and she came back to her room more energized than she had been.

"Okay," she said to Faith and Themis, who hadn't gotten into too much mischief while she'd been gone enjoying a hot shower. "Who's up for some late breakfast?"

The cafeteria, at this time, only had ten or so people wandering around. Dawn grabbed food, paid for it, and then left to let all of her Pokémon eat. She kept a close eye on her newly-evolved Luxray as she voraciously ate almost three times what she usually had eaten as a Luxio, searching for any signs of problems.

Luckily, there didn't seem to be any. After the long rest and a good breakfast, Sekhmet was ready to use her electricity again. It took some tries to get it right, but soon she was charging and sparking stronger than before. She demonstrated this newly discovered strength with a fanged grin on her face.

It was some pretty awesome timing. Now she had a Luxray to face against the water-types of Crasher Wake in her next gym battle.

Another good part about Sekhmet's evolution was that she no longer picked fights with or responded to Neptune's harassment violently. When he chirped something snarky or sent a bubble her way deliberately – which he did a few times as she stretched and tried out her new form – instead of attacking him, she shrugged them off. She seemed to have matured overnight.

Dawn wondered if it was evolving that had caused this change in attitude, or meeting the Luxray and the Luxio. Whatever it was, she appreciated the calm in team dynamic the evolution brought.

The only downside of this change was that Neptune was a lot more withdrawn. At least before, with their constant bickering, both of her leaders had at least been passionate and outgoing.

Now, after the initial attempts at trying to rile her up had failed, Neptune was quiet. Instead of bothering Sekhmet, he was intensely focused on training to the point where Dawn was pretty sure he wasn't telling her when he got injured or sore.

She pulled him away from training to talk to him. "You know that the smartest thing to do would be to let us know if you're hurt, right?" she asked, eyeing his right flipper. He'd been favouring that side for a while now, relying mostly on his left.

Neptune nodded, shifting on his feet like he really wanted to go back to working on his bubble beam and metal claw combo. The poor tree he'd been practicing on was very bare of bark now.

Under the pretense that she wanted to have his flippers cleaned, Dawn fussed about his favoured right flipper for a while. "A cleaner flipper means a stronger metal claw," she lied through her teeth as she quietly sprayed a potion and rubbed the mist in.

She could tell Neptune didn't buy that for a second, but he let her continue on. Once she was done, however, he went back to pushing himself severely.

Dawn sighed. Like most members of his species, Neptune was proud. He took his role as leader pretty seriously, and on top of that, obviously enjoyed the position.

Now, though, Sekhmet, who had been the second-in-command, had not only the type advantage, but was also more advanced. He couldn't have been taking that well.

The best thing to do, she figured, was train hard with him in the hopes that he would evolve soon. Evolving into an Empoleon – a Pokémon known to be completely confident in itself – would hopefully do the trick and solve his problems.

However, she also had her other Pokémon to look over. Helios had been waiting patiently for his evolution, and she felt bad about constantly telling him to just keep 'muscling up'. He looked slim, but compared to how slender he had been in his early days as a Kirlia, he had certainly bulked up. Before, she'd been thinking of holding his evolution back so that some of the older members of the team could evolve, but now that Sekhmet had evolved, it didn't seem to be fair to hold back Helios when the means to his change was right in her hands.

And then there was Medusa, whose condition to join had been evolving. Right now, the best thing she had for pushing her to evolve was by having Themis dive-bomb her from the sky, since putting her in an actually dangerous and life-threatening situation was completely out of the question. All she had for the grass-type right now was to just keep training her.

Since Neptune seemed to have plenty of incentive to train himself, she let him be, deciding that it would be best to let him work off his frustrations.

* * *

Training served two purposes. First, it – hopefully – pushed him closer to his final evolution.

And second, it got his mind off of current matters.

Sekhmet's evolution was . . . well, it was upsetting. He was the starter, the team leader. And she, the second Pokémon of Dawn's team, the second-in-command, had an advantage not only in type, but also in size and strength.

How was he supposed to be the leader if he couldn't even take on the second?

When he, upset at the turn of events, had tried to goad her into losing her temper, she had merely shaken off his attempts, acting more mature than he was. And technically, that was true. She was more mature than he was, at least in body, and by acting like so, she was also more mature in spirit and mind.

Which, in turn, served to shame him. Here he was, the supposed leader, acting like a Piplup chick.

That was embarrassing. So he dove into training, pushing hard and feeling the muscles in his flippers train from how he pushed them. The frustration, the embarrassment, the pent-up feelings of aggression were all poured into his strikes.

"Hey! Bird boy!"

Neptune guessed that the newcomer was referring to him, but he ignored her. His name was not 'Bird boy', and if she wanted him to reply, she would have to learn that.

Unfortunately, the Tangela was nearly as stubborn as he was in her ways. He hissed when the sharp crack of a vine whip struck his back.

"What was that for?" he snapped, turning away from the tree he'd been practicing his beam-metal claw combo on.

The Tangela didn't really have much of a face, but she shrugged her round body. "Spar with me," she said briskly. "I need the practice against a water-type and it might be good for you."

"I'm training," he said, pointedly looking and gesturing to the tree in front of him.

That didn't deter the Tangela. "And now you're still going to be training," she said, lazily flicking a few loose-hanging vines away from her buried eyes. "Except instead of beating up a helpless tree that can't fight back, you're going to practice against me. C'mon. Hustle, hustle."

He did see her point. Huffing, he left his tree and took a stance against her. "What exactly do you mean by sparring-" he began to ask when she lunged forward, surprisingly fast on her feet, vines whipping viciously.

No time for a protective bubble shield – those vines would break right through them and smack him. He raised his flippers, glowing in the metallic sheen of a metal claw, and dove in, trying to protect his head and vital areas. His arms and sides stung from the vine whips, but he ran forwards, trying to reach her.

Medusa, however, didn't let him. She kept her distance, backing up and repelling him with vine whips.

She was right. It was a lot more difficult and distracting from his frustration when his target fought back. Ignoring the stinging cracks on his body, he feinted and shuffled, getting closer to her.

* * *

Because she slept in, they didn't get far in training before night began falling. After looking over everyone and making sure they were alright, they returned to the center they'd stayed in last night. She handed her Pokémon over for a more thorough checkup, and walked over to the waiting section. While she waited, she wanted to look over the Empoleon and Prinplup pages on her Pokédex. Maybe there would be something to help Neptune with.

She barely managed to pull out the device to scroll through its information when the nurse called her. Worried, Dawn shoved the dex into her coat's pocket and hurried up to the counter. "Hi," she said. "I'm Dawn Steele?"

The receptionist – different from the night nurse before – nodded. "Would you mind just going into one of the examination rooms?" she asked. From behind the counter, a young man dressed in an assistant's uniform came out. "Peter will take you there."

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, heart beginning to speed up. Was it Neptune? Had she let him push himself too hard? What if there was something gone horribly wrong for him?

"No, no," the nurse said, hurriedly reassuring her. "It's just something we need to talk to you about in private. Peter?"

The young man named Peter gestured to her, so she followed him, despite still being worried. A trainer didn't just get asked to step into one of the examination rooms without something being different. And different could mean 'horribly gone wrong' in a Pokémon Center during a checkup.

Peter led her to a small examination room. It looked designed for human use, what with the adjustable examination bed and human body charts. "Please be patient," he said, polite but distant, and left her by herself.

Sitting at one of the uncomfortable chairs, she kicked aimlessly at the air and sat on her hands. Once, she tried to be more productive and browse through her Pokédex, but the words floated and her eyes couldn't focus.

She nearly sighed in relief when Peter opened the door again, this time leading a serious-looking ranger woman into the room.

"Hello," the ranger said right off the bat, sounding crisp and professional. "My name is Allison Halliday. Are you Dawn Steele?"

"Um, yes?" A ranger? What was going on?

Peter left, closing the door behind him. "I was told that you have an Eevee. Is that true?"

This wasn't about Neptune? That was a little relieving. But then the problem apparently lay with Faith. "It's true," she said. As far as she knew Faith was healthy and alright, and she hadn't done anything to cause trouble.

Ranger Halliday nodded. "Can you put your Eevee into PC storage, or send it to somewhere away from you?"

She could send Faith home and let her stay with her mom.

Or, she _could_, but she wanted to know why this was necessary. "Yes," she said, stretching out the word in hesitation. "What's this about?"

The ranger sighed. "A few trainers with members of the Eevee family were assaulted and robbed over the last few days," she said. "We think it might be more prudent for any trainers with Eeveelutions to play it safe."

Dawn slumped slightly in relief. Alright, that, she could take as an acceptable answer.

"Please be careful, and avoid telling people that you have an Eevee," Ranger Halliday instructed. "If anyone who remembers seeing you with it asks specifically about your Eevee, tell them that it's no longer in your possession and try to leave without arousing suspicion or making accusations. If anyone does ask, or follow you around, call authorities after getting to a safe location."

Call authorities. Hopefully they'd do better with this situation than they did with Team Galactic. "Alright," Dawn said, and was sent on her way with a business card and a firm nod on Ranger Halliday's part.

Once out, she went into her room and let out her Eevee to explain the situation. "Sorry," she finished with. "But I'm going to have to send you home for a while to stay with my mom."

Faith was disappointed that she was being sent back home, but she did understand that it was for both their safety. She promised to train, and Dawn put her in her PC before calling her mom, asking for Frejya.

Johanna sent the Buneary over, but she did have a few words to say_. "How was your camping trip?"_ she asked pointedly.

Oops, she'd forgotten to call her. "Good," she said sheepishly.

Johanna sighed. _"Honestly, Dawn, don't go forgetting about your mom," _she complained._ "It makes me so lonely when my only daughter goes about abandoning me. And then I just feel old . . . and useless . . . and like trash just abandoned on the side of the road . . . ."_

Dawn squirmed. While she loved her mom very much and had a strong family relationship with her . . . she was still a preteen girl and this kind of dramatic stuff from her mom made her feel embarrassed. "_Mom_."

_"Fine, fine. But don't make me worry, Dawn. What if something had happened to you?"_

"Sorry," she apologized. "I'll take more care."

_"You better. Even with all your __Pokémon, you still have to be careful."_ But Johanna was willing to move on, now that her daughter had gotten the point and promised to take better care to stay in contact._ "By the way,"_ she said. _"Do you mind if I start training Selene as a contest __Pokémon? Jackie's taken her under her wing, and she's got quite the promise as a performer, especially as a dancer. I think this could really help her break her shy shell."_

That news took Dawn by surprise. Selene, the shy Ralts, liking coordinating and performing on the stage? In front of a crowd?

She couldn't really imagine it that well. All she could imagine was her ducking behind her brother to hide.

However, this _was_ her mom. She had an eye for this kind of stuff, and if there was one thing she was really good at, it was picking out people and Pokémon with a talent and innate gift for coordinating. Her hunch was always right.

And Jackie didn't take just anyone under her tutelage. She only took the ones she liked and had the talent, and every Pokémon she took under her wings always ended up great. While that was partially due to the Medicham's strict, OCD and borderline rabid tendencies to pursue and demand nothing short of perfection, she was still a psychic, and had uncanny intuition at what she did.

"If Selene's alright with it," she said, "then that would be great. I'm leaving her in your care, mom. But don't let Jackie bully her into it?"

Johanna nodded. _"I'll take good care of her, and Faith and Minerva. Have fun training, Dawn."_

"I will. Love you!"

_"I love you too."_ Johanna smiled, and then the video chat disconnected.

* * *

The next day, Dawn woke up early, fully rested. After grabbing a quick bite to eat and packing some away for lunch, they moved onto training in a part of the forest surrounding Lake Valor.

The plan was to train on the move, going through the forest until they reached the edge of the forest. She wanted to drop by the large body of water where the god of willpower was said to reside and pray for a bit before going back to training, and camping in the area later at night.

While Mespirit was an important goddess, and personally her favourite, out of the three Lake Guardians it was Azelf who was most popular in Sinnoh. Historically, Sinnoh had always valued will as strong as iron, glorifying those that could brave through anything, starting from the Iron Queens, who had managed to conquer and unite all of Sinnoh to bring forth the Age of Ice and Iron. Stories were told and retold of warrior priestesses of Dialga, wearing crowns of steel and wielding diamond-tipped spears in battle, fighting against the forces of bloodthirsty warlords as they led their own armies across Sinnoh's cold lands through harsh winters and rough terrain, conquering the strongholds of bloodthirsty warlords until all of Sinnoh was united as one strong region.

She had visited Lake Valor once, but that had been years ago, and she barely remembered anything from it. She wanted to remember visiting the lake, because the visit didn't feel like it counted if she couldn't recall what the experience had been like. All religious Sinnohans tried to make a point of visiting at least two of the Three Great Lakes once in their lifetimes, and most chose to make a pilgrimage to either Valor or Verity, since Acuity was in the coldest, hardest to reach part of Sinnoh.

Since this was still training, going through the roughest part of the lake would serve both purposes. Medicines restocked, more balls purchased and Poké balls firmly attached to her belt, she set off, Themis scouting above and Neptune and Helios at her sides.

The Golbat was more than disappointed to learn that Faith wouldn't be with them for a while when she had broken the news the day before. Now, she looked fine, but she wasn't acting as she usually did, poking fun at others or cackling at nothing in particular.

Dawn had seen that Themis and Faith were close friends, but she hadn't suspected that the Golbat's interactions with the rest of the team depended on the Eevee's presence. Now, the poison flying-type was distant from the others, withdrawing into herself like she was new to the team.

Great, more problems in her team's dynamic. When it rained, it really came pouring.

A few hours into hiking, she sent the others a bit further away to work on their attacks. She set Medusa sparring with Sekhmet, since a Luxray was one of the strongest predators around and Sekhmet needed to get used to her body. Besides, type resistance or not, if there was anything that could trigger evolution through primal surges of fear, it was probably facing a Luxray in battle.

To test how fit Helios was, she set Helios up against both Neptune and Frejya. This was also to see how well Neptune could work with others. With Sekhmet, she wasn't willing to test that combination at this stage, but she thought Frejya might make a good test partner. She wasn't expressive, so she gave little communication on her plans to her partner. Against a psychic like Helios, she wanted to see their teamwork come naturally, too fast to be distinguished by empathic capabilities.

But the real reason she had everyone else working hard was so she could talk in semi-privacy to the last member of the team.

"Hey, Themis!" she called.

The Golbat, in the middle of circling the sky and lazily scanning the surrounding area for any potential threats, paused when she heard her name.

Dawn made a 'come here' gesture, and she flew down, tipping her head curiously.

"I know you miss Faith," she began, and the Golbat's ears dropped. "Hey, don't feel bad. I know you miss her – you two are really close friends. I think you guys are the closest two on the team right now."

Well, Helios had Selene, but it wasn't exactly as if she was training Selene, so those two didn't really count.

"But maybe this might be a good chance for you to get closer to the others," she suggested.

Themis wavered, looking conflicted at the suggestion.

"You won't be betraying Faith," Dawn said. "She can still be your best friend – it's just that you're making friends with the others as well, see? Not just being teammates or acquaintances, but actual friends. That's allowed. It might be even better that way."

The Golbat gave some consideration of her words, and then squeaked in what was an affirmative manner. Dawn patted her head, smoothing the short blue fur with her fingers.

"Let's work on your flying while carrying me," she said, moving onto other matters. "You did great before – let's see if you can keep that up. Think you can do that?"

Themis grinned widely, looking genuinely amused for the first time since Faith had to be sent away. She lifted herself a little more into the air, and let Dawn grab onto her slender legs.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, tightening her grip.

Themis squeaked in the negative.

"Alright," she said, holding as tightly as she could. Her heart beat faster, anticipating what was about to happen. "Themis? Fly!"

The blue aura surrounded them, extending from Themis to around her as well. Feeling weightless, Dawn lurched slightly as Themis shot up into the air. The blue aura around them kept her from seeing very clearly, but she could discern enough to know that she was high up. Very high up.

"Themis?" she tried to speak, looking up at her Golbat. Other than the dryness in her throat that came from the fear of dangling far above the ground, her voice sounded pretty normal. "Now I want to try landing. Preferably without dropping me or breaking my legs."

Her Golbat made an offended sound.

"I trust you," she said quickly, and it was true. If Themis could have lifted her into a tree while under attack from several Buizel, Dawn had no doubt that she could safely fly her up and down. "But just reminding you. Better safe than sorry, right?"

Themis sniffed, but grinned to show she understood. They descended, albeit at a slower rate than they had when going up. In the last ten feet above the ground, Themis hovered, letting the blue aura of fly flicker out of existence as she lowered herself – and Dawn – back to the ground.

Five feet above the ground, Dawn let go of her Golbat's legs and fell the rest of the way. She landed on her feet with bent knees, but the impact hit her a lot harder than she had expected.

"I'm okay!" she said as Themis squeaked in alarm. She had misjudged the ground's lumpiness, and nearly fallen over. The soles of her feet and her ankles stung, but she pushed the pain aside and stood while trying to school her expression into something casual and not cringing in agony. "I'm okay, I just wanted to try that."

Themis lightly swiped her head with her leathery wing.

"Sorry," Dawn apologized. "I think you've got the safely flying with a passenger down pat. Want to try using it for attacks?" That way, her feet could recover from the impact.

The Golbat nodded, and then launched herself back into the air.

* * *

She knew they were nearing Lake Valor when they got onto a path worn by thousands of feet. She returned most of her Pokémon, except for Frejya, and then followed the path. "You know," she said to the stoic Buneary. "I think you were blessed by Azelf sometimes."

The Buneary looked at her, curiosity colouring her usually blank face.

Dawn smiled. "Because you're the gutsiest Buneary ever," she explained. "You've just got some seriously major willpower."

Frejya ducked her head, but Dawn caught the pleased smile.

"Thanks," Dawn said.

Frejya's soothe bell around her neck jingled lightly.

"Anyways, let's go and pay our respects to Azelf." She was going to say something after that, but her words died on her lips when she saw the gathering of people up ahead.

Around half of the group of ten or so people were trainers. That was clear in their clothes, sturdy and travel worn, and the balls that hung on their belts.

The other half, however, were dressed in crisp uniforms. They also had Poké balls, but that – and the hostile looks being exchanged – were the only things the two groups had in common.

"What do you mean, we can't go to Lake Valor?" demanded one of the trainers, a man dressed to go fishing. He was carrying a box of baits, and a fishing rod.

"How many times do we have to tell you?" the leader of the uniformed men snapped. It wasn't a police uniform, but rather looked like something more private, like a security company's. There weren't any distinguishable logos, however. It was all black. "There's a study being conducted, and all non-related personnel are barred from entering."

"You can't do that!" cried a girl, who only looked a few years older than Dawn. She looked like someone working at a shrine or a temple, in loose robe-like clothes. A Chingling hung on her belt, and when she spoke, jangled furiously.

"We can, and did," another uniformed man said rudely. "Now leave before we have to forcibly escort you off the premises."

"The Lakes aren't just some land you can shut off," protested the girl, but yelped when one of the men grabbed her arm.

"Hey, let go of her!" the fisherman shouted, and let out a Remoraid.

The uniformed men released their own Pokémon in response. Dawn recognized a Houndour, a Magnemite, a Beautifly and a Bronzor.

Recognizing a fight about to brawl, the trainers began reaching for their own balls when suddenly, a mental pressure fell upon everyone's head, even Dawn's.

It was a sensation hard to explain, as there was no physical pressure being exerted, but rather a feeling that came from emotion. The best way to explain it was as something similar to stage fright and harsh expectations. It felt as if someone very important with a huge presence was silently critiquing and judging her as she stood on a stage doing something she wasn't confident in. It took more effort to turn and face the source of this pressure, the force that made chills run through her body and cold sweat break out.

One of the quieter trainers, a black-haired woman with an impassive face stood in the center of attention now. She was one of those people with a face that was easy to forget, and would have in normal circumstance not been noticed very well.

Except she was very well-noticed right now, due to the large, pressure-exerting Dusclops that stood at her side, thick arms crossed across its gray bandaged chest. Its one red eye was narrowed impatiently.

She'd felt pressure from Pokémon before. Palmer's co-worker, Arcade Star Dahlia, had a Dusknoir that she'd shown her and Barry during a dinner before, and the ghost-type had to be returned early because of its pressure affecting everyone present.

This Dusclops, however, had a pressure that was more than enough to match one of Dahlia's main battling Pokémon. And despite her flamboyant ways, Dahlia wasn't a Frontier Brain for no reason. This was a powerful Pokémon. Even Frejya cringed at the pressure radiating off of it.

"Please," the woman asked, and while she didn't shout or raise her voice, they all heard her clearly. "Can we all act like rational adults instead of a frenzied mob?"

The uniformed people and trainers alike squirmed under her gaze. Muttering something about fishing in seawater, the fisherman departed first, and was followed by the other trainers. The men in uniform, under the Dusclops trainer's strong red gaze, returned their Pokémon.

Then, one of them noticed her. "Hey!" he barked harshly, and Dawn jumped, surprised. "Get out of here, kid!"

Now he was just compensating for feeling pressured by the ghost-type. Dawn flushed at being made a target for his frustration when the dark-haired woman looked at him. Shutting his mouth, he turned away and left.

The leader muttered something about how they shouldn't interfere with the study before he and his fellow men in uniform retreated back in the direction of the lake.

The black-haired woman frowned disapprovingly towards his direction, but nodded to her Dusclops, who drifted off into her shadow and disappeared from sight. Then, she looked at Dawn.

"Are you alright?" she asked. She still looked nondescript, but Dawn still felt the prickle of the great pressure from before. Maybe it was because she knew the ghost-type was in her shadow.

Frejya tapped her knee with one of her fluff-covered ears, and Dawn realized that she hadn't answered the woman's question. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine," Dawn assured her. "Thank you, though."

She nodded. "It was no problem. Are you headed back towards the Lakefront Hotel?"

"In that direction, yeah," Dawn answered. "But not to the hotel, I'm not staying there."

"I see," said Dusclops-woman. "In that case, may I accompany you? I'm afraid that I don't trust those individuals, and there is safety in numbers."

Dawn suspected that the woman was asking only because the older trainer was worried about her and wanted to make sure she was alright, but it was a good idea. "Sure, that would be great! I'm Dawn."

Dusclops-woman smiled. "Christina. Just Tina is fine, however. You're a trainer?"

"Yeah," she said, as the three of them – Tina, Frejya and her – began walking away from the lake. "We're training to take on Crasher Wake. What about you? Your Dusclops seemed really strong."

"General?" Tina smiled faintly. "Yes, he's quite strong. He prefers not to be in a Poké ball, which is why . . ." she trailed off, and gestured to the direction of her shadow, innocuously lying on the ground.

That was a cool trick. Dawn made a mental note to see if any ghost-types she got in the future could do the same.

Tina wasn't much of a talker, but walking next to her in silence wasn't uncomfortable. Despite the fact that she was a stranger, Dawn almost felt safe in her presence as the older woman kept her and Frejya company.

When they reached the famous sights of Valor Lakefront, Tina nodded. "It was nice meeting you, Dawn," she said softly before turning north towards Route 214. "Good luck on your upcoming battle."

"Thanks! Good luck!" Dawn called, and then she looked southwards. "You know, we could train at the beach," she suggested. It wasn't that far, and there would be wild water-types nearby, as well as trainers with water-type Pokémon.

Frejya shrugged, which was as good as a yes from her. Letting out the others and taking out her bike, Dawn hopped on. "Beach is . . . that way!" she said, pointing after checking both her map and her Pokétch's GPS app. "Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Naturally, everyone ran. Grinning, she began peddling after them as fast as she could.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Faith (Eevee), Medusa (Tangela)

_Home:_ Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts), Frejya (Buneary)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Camarero (Rapidash), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Tyrogue)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), (Aipom, given to mom), (Cherubi, given to mom) Marcus (Heracross)

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togepi), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: Exams are done and I'm back (with a filler chapter)! Isn't it funny how all the story ideas seem to come pouring in right when you're taking exams. In the middle of your least favourite/weakest subjects. When you're trying to answer a question that is just short of being ethically wrong.

Oh well I now have pretty cool naming schemes for four characters that had been previously ambiguous, a few extra scenes in Titanium, Johto, Kalos and Kanto and some ideas for a handful of oneshots so not everything is lost.

Wow, the response to the last chapter. Everyone's like, oh, it's wonderful that Sekhmet evolved . . . this conflict isn't over is it. You guys know me so well now (XP). Ranger Allison, by the way, is an NPC you can battle against near Pastoria. She was chosen because of the Pokémon she had.

An awesome reviewer suggested having Lucas and Barry's teams up there to be seen as well. Done, but please remember when looking at them - this is what you know of them **so far.** They might have switched up their rosters and you might not know until they next get the limelight on them. This is to avoid spoilers, so bear with me.

Finally - I learned that the last name of the female character in 50 Shades of Grey is Steele. *bash head into desk* Maybe I should have just gone with Hewitt or Berlitz for Dawn's last name. Ah, screw it it's too late to change it now.


	22. On the Edge

A.S.107

September 17th

_This was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me._

* * *

After two days of training near the beach, they were disappointed to find the lake _still_ closed to the public.

"Oh well," she said after she was turned away by the uniformed group again. This time it had been a woman who had stopped her from getting to the lake, and while more polite than her coworkers, she had still been firm. No civilians were to interfere, and no access would be allowed for a long while, so she shouldn't get her hopes up.

Whatever was going on in Lake Valor must have been something pretty serious. "We'll visit next time," she said to her Pokémon. Frejya hadn't explicitly said as much, but she was pretty sure her Buneary had wanted to see the lake.

So they headed back to Pastoria for a small break. "Maybe we should give Route 212 a try," she said, thoughtfully looking at the map as she tapped the route west of Pastoria.

Helios and Frejya, who were out with her in the diner booth to eat, both looked up.

"Not _camp_ there," she said to their expressions. Apparently Frejya had been briefed on what had happened before her rejoining the team. "Not yet anyways. The weather report said that it's going to be raining pretty heavily there for a while, with a good chance of hail, so we're just going to train. Rain boosts water-type moves, so it should make for some good training."

She did have a point, and they knew it. After paying for her meal and making sure that her other Pokémon got some food in them, they headed to the western outskirts of the city. It wasn't raining yet, but the sky was gray and the air felt cold, damp and heavy. Under her feet, she felt through the soles of her boots the way the ground sinking ever-so-slightly under her body's weight. Not fully mud, but not necessarily dry dirt either.

But this was a day for someone to evolve, she could feel it.

"Ready?" she asked, and without needing further directions, her Pokémon stepped forwards.

* * *

"I don't see the point on this," Medusa said flatly.

From her perch above their heads, Themis could see the other team members and how they reacted.

Neptune just rolled his eyes and continued wrestling with Frejya. The Buneary kept a neutral face, clearly not wishing to get caught up with pointless conflict or arguments.

Helios might have tried to appease the Tangela somehow, but the Kirlia was currently busy fighting a wild Octillery. Sekhmet was supervising and making sure that Helios wasn't in any real danger, and she had only sent a bored glance towards Medusa before ignoring her.

Dawn may not have understood what Medusa said exactly, but she got the general gist. "Well, okay, so maybe that didn't work," the human girl said, eyeing the latest attempt – and failure – at the strategy they'd been crafting.

The idea, apparently, had been to use Medusa's vines to create a web of sorts. The vines would branch out with Medusa safe in the center, holding mega drain bulbs, and be dusted with poison powders. By having the 'web' of vines hanging around, any attacker trying to get to her would have been forced to slow down to avoid touching the vines, or barrel through them and find that the vines held some surprises for anybody who dared touch them.

It was a pretty good idea . . . in theory. And out in a place where there were plenty of places for the vines to hold, like a clearing surrounded by trees with strong branches.

But if the arena in the gym didn't have anything like that – and, Dawn had explained that it most likely wouldn't, since it was a water-type gym – Medusa had to find a way to keep the vines up around herself _without_ holding onto anything.

And Medusa couldn't do that. Her vines were meant to be used like snares or whips, not strong branches that could hold themselves up.

Dawn was trying to encourage the Tangela, offering different suggestions, but the Tangela only followed them half-heartedly. The grass-type had given up, apparently.

"I just want to evolve," she muttered, and Themis, with her sharp hearing, heard what she said.

Interesting team they had here. Everyone – except herself and Frejya – evolved differently.

Now, how did Medusa evolve again?

Themis vaguely recalled something to do with danger, and shrugged. They were all frustrated, and clearly something needed to change.

This seemed like the fastest way to get things done.

She rearranged herself, clambered into an upright position on her roost, and then spread her wings.

Time for some fun.

"I don't see the point-" Medusa was saying when Themis fell on her like a predator from the skies.

* * *

The first few hours proved to be a mixed bag. She'd been hoping to make use of Medusa's vines to set up some kind of trap that could help against Crasher Wake, only to find that the vines wouldn't work the way she had envisioned. Either that, or Medusa wasn't trying as hard to stretch her vines and hold them.

Then, Medusa had somehow gotten into an argument with Themis. She wasn't even sure where the sudden clash had come from. All she knew was one moment, Medusa had been tossing her vines up in the air in frustration as they continuously fell too quickly instead of staying up and away from her body, and the next moment Themis was suddenly lashing at her with her wings.

"Guys!" she called, trying to calm them down. She really didn't want a repeat of Neptune VS Sekhmet starring other Pokémon. "Guys, stop that!"

But, naturally, they wouldn't. Medusa was hit by the first wing attack, and was sent tumbling like a ball of greenish-blue yarn, but managed to stagger back to her feet. She shot a glare towards Themis and barked out a high-pitched, squeaking insult as she managed to avoid the second wing attack, a stretch that had Themis shooting past her after missing.

Except Themis was a pretty good flier. She banked on a quick turn, and before Medusa could do anything, smacked her hard on the back of her vine-covered head with her strong leathery wings. Medusa tumbled again, and had to pull herself back onto her feet by using her vines and pulling on a nearby branch.

Glowering fiercely, she took a deep breath, and her body began glowing with a silvery-gray light. Unlike the pure white light of evolution, this light shifted, and wasn't as bright.

Still glowing, she surged forwards as Themis hovered in the air to observe this new phenomenon. Themis, believing that Medusa wouldn't be able to reach her at this distance, didn't bother moving further out of range.

The light, however, moved off of Medusa's body. It surged forth even after splitting away from her and continued onwards until it struck one of the surprised Golbat's wings. Screeching, Themis fell out of the air.

Medusa huffed in satisfaction, but even as she fell, Themis slashed her other wing sharply, creating blades of air that flew towards the grass-type.

"Medusa!" Dawn shrieked.

The Tangela desperately pulled forth another one of the glowing silver and gray light while Helios ran forwards to prevent Themis from getting hurt too much by cushioning her fall. The shimmering light barely pulled away from her in time to stop the air cutters, but the fragments of the light that were shattered by the blades of air fell around Medusa, hurting her.

Glaring at the fallen Golbat – who was, despite everything, shrieking and cackling – Medusa yanked up yet another glowing light.

"Stop!" Dawn barked with all the authority she could muster into her voice. Sekhmet, who had taken over fighting the Octillery after Helios had abandoned the fight to save Themis, came lumbering over, stepping between the middle of the 'fight', her tail lashing in slight agitation.

Frejya stepped towards Medusa, a slight furrow the only show of emotion on her face.

"Time," she said, as fiercely as she could while Neptune joined Helios in checking on Themis. The Golbat had finally stopped cackling, and was favouring the wing that had been hit. "Medusa, stop your attack. Themis, how's your wing?"

She began digging for a potion in her bag when she saw that the light hadn't faded. "Medusa?"

Frejya, slightly hesitant, placed a paw on the Tangela's side. The light expanded, and engulfed the Buneary as well, no longer silvery-gray but pure white.

The rest of the team watched in awe as the two Pokémon, glowing, began to grow – and grow and grow. Dawn fumbled in her pocket for her Pokédex, and snapped it open to the camera just as the last of the glow faded away to reveal a Lopunny and a Tangrowth.

Both of them plopped down onto the ground, exhausted after evolving. Frejya looked at her new body, examining her longer limbs and ears with a critical eye even as she breathed hard.

Medusa, on the other hand, lifted her arms to stare at them in a few wonder-filled moments before letting them fall into her 'lap'. "Taa," she said, looking much happier than she ever had during her time as a Tangela.

From the ground, Themis cackled loudly as she noticed the looks of disbelief on Helios and Neptune's faces.

* * *

After dropping the two off at the Center so they could take a long rest, they headed back to Route 212. "Maybe everyone else will evolve here as well," she joked. That made three Pokémon of hers that had reached their final forms here.

Frejya and Medusa were both exhausted. Understandable, given that they had both nearly doubled in size and body mass.

She might have stayed with them, if Neptune hadn't insisted on returning to training. At his side, Helios had been quiet but just as eager.

Neptune. Dawn winced. That could not have been great for her proud starter. Not only had Frejya evolved before him, but the newest member of the team had as well.

And Helios, as well. He was the member of the team with the easiest method of evolution, and yet he had to watch as others – even Medusa – evolved before he did.

Her Kirlia and Prinplup didn't complain, though, and only trained hard with the others, focused even more intently than ever. For that, she was grateful and proud.

But even so, there were only so many hours they could train for before they ran out of time. The sky was beginning to get dark, barely two hours after they had returned to their spot, and the winds were already getting colder and sharper.

"Wrap it up, guys!" she called, even if she was a bit reluctant to make them stop their hard work. Sekhmet's control over electricity was getting better than it had ever been, Helios could teleport consecutively fifteen times without being affected, Neptune could control the salinity of his water attacks, and Themis . . . .

Dawn looked towards her Golbat, who was having a little too much fun battering Helios with air cutters. The Kirlia had to work hard to teleport out of the barrage Themis unleashed as she cackled like this was the funniest activity in the world.

Themis was fine.

"Hey, wrap it up!" she called to her Golbat, who gave an exaggerated pout – and one last, very deliberate air cutter that Helios easily sidestepped without teleporting – before she stopped.

After checking them for any injuries or problems, she recalled all her Pokémon except Helios. "I'm trusting you to protect me," she said, only half-serious.

Helios, however, nodded solemnly and saluted her. Smiling at his devotion, they began making their way back. Occasionally, her Kirlia had to point her in the right direction. It was lucky for her that her Pokémon had the sense of direction that she herself lacked. If they had both been incapable of properly finding their ways, she didn't know what she would do.

Probably get lost in the middle of nowhere and call her mom, asking where she was. She smiled at the imagined frustration her mom would feel, being woken up in the middle of the night only for her clueless daughter to ask where she was.

Helios suddenly put a hand on her arm. "What is it?" she asked, looking around. The route was getting darker, and the trees cast shadows that could be hiding anything. Like, say, a serial killer or a monster –

Something gold glowed in the shadows just to their left, and she stifled a scream of surprise. Helios raised an arm threateningly towards the golden light.

She sighed in slight relief, however, when the light came forth to reveal an Umbreon. The dark-type Eeveelution tipped its head towards the two of them, flicking its long ears every now and then.

"Hi," she said, a little relieved that it wasn't some kind of monster or serial killer. She did, however, jam her hands in her coat's pocket to grab one of her Poké balls. Sekhmet's met her fingers first, and she held on tightly, ready to let her Luxray out at any perceived threat. She would be the best bet in the dark, other than Themis.

"Hey, Kanon, where'd you get to?"

A guy dressed in jeans and a waterproof rain jacket came walking out of the same direction as the Umbreon, an Espeon at his side. Behind him, another guy – this one in a hoodie – followed him out.

Dawn backed up slightly, and Helios tensed.

The Umbreon – Kanon – flicked its tail before turning to its trainer. "Oh," the man with the Espeon said. "Hello."

"Hi," she said, very much wishing to get away for the moment. Being around strangers as darkness fell didn't exactly put her at ease, and there was something about these two that made her tense.

Helios looked like he felt the same. He kept close to Dawn, holding tightly onto the edge of her coat, and kept an eye on the man with the Espeon.

"Anon, Kanon," the rain jacket guy said, smiling. "Relax, boys."

She tried to smile back.

The sweater guy was staring at her, and recognition flickered in his eyes. "Hey, I met you before," he said.

"You did?" she asked, trying to remember if she knew this guy.

He nodded. "You saw me with my Pokémon, and scanned them – a Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon?" he said, gesturing at his belt where three Poké balls hung.

Dawn vaguely remembered that meeting. "Yeah," she said, trying to discourage continuing the talk.

The sweater guy didn't seem to get her signal. "I'm Douglas," he said, stepping forwards and extending a hand. She felt obligated to shake it, even if his palm was clammy with sweat. She wished she could wipe off her hand after he released it, but was forced to hold it still.

Douglas turned to rain jacket guy. "She has a female Eevee," he said to his friend excitedly.

Helios gripped tighter onto her coat.

Douglas grinned at her in what he probably assumed was a friendly, non-threatening way. She just saw it as creepy, especially in the fading light.

Anon and Kanon watched from the side, eyes unblinking and still.

"I don't suppose you've changed your mind?" he asked eagerly. Behind him, rain jacket guy was looking at her with interest as well.

She did her best not to squirm, and then realized he had asked her a question.

"Huh?"

"About selling your Eevee," he explained.

She very nearly opened her mouth to tell the truth – that she still wasn't interested in selling Faith, and probably never would be – when she remembered why the Eevee wasn't on the team right now.

And what had Ranger Halliday said? Trainers with Eeveelutions were attacked and robbed. Douglas had been pretty interested in Faith, and he had three Eeveelutions of his own as a part of his collection. What if he – and this friend of his – were the people behind these attacks?

"Sorry," she said instead, shrugging in an attempt to look casual. "But she got homesick, so I sent her home."

"Really?" Douglas asked. Behind him, his friend was staring intensely at her.

Dawn nodded a little too eagerly. "To Johto. She was from Johto and initially she was happy in Sinnoh, but then she wanted to go home so I gave her to my friend. I traded her for – a Tangela." She very nearly said Buneary, but then realized that she didn't remember whether Frejya had been with her when they met Douglas. "I needed a grass-type on my team, and she evolved into a Tangrowth just a few hours ago, so it was really cool," she added in the hopes that he would buy her explanation, and then decided that speaking any more might be too suspicious, so bit her tongue to stop herself from blurting out everything on her mind.

She hoped Lyra wouldn't mind her identity being used in a lie.

For a moment she thought that he didn't believe her, but then he sighed in disappointment. "What a shame," he said, much to her relief. He then ruined that relief by continuing to speak. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know whether your friend would be interested in a trade or selling, do you?"

Dawn frowned. "If Faith doesn't want to come back," she said, "then she shouldn't have to. And I'm pretty sure my friend doesn't want to trade."

"Right, right," Douglas backtracked. "So, um, then nice talking to you."

She considered asking him if he knew about the assaults on Pokémon trainers with Eeveelutions, but then changed her mind. If Douglas _was_ the person behind the attacks, she wasn't going to point it out and have him decide she was a threat.

Helios shoved her back, however, just as Douglas fell forwards, eyes suddenly lax and without light. Behind him, his friend adjusted his grip on a rock double the size of his fist.

Dawn shrieked as Anon the Espeon lunged forth. In front of the red gem on its forehead, dark, swirling shadows began to form.

Helios sent a swirling mess of magical leaves hurtling towards the Espeon, but let out a cry of pain when Kanon the Umbreon snuck up and bit his arm hard. Dawn winced when she heard a cracking sound, and threw out Sekhmet's ball. Her Luxray roared, making both Eeveelutions hesitate.

But then the Espeon released the ball of shadows, and Sekhmet barely managed to pull a spark to protect herself from being hurt.

Helios, in the meanwhile, was struggling to get the Umbreon to release his arm. He tried return, magical leaf, and even confusion to drag a rock nearby so he could hit the dark-type, but the defensive Eeveelution took the hits easily, and refused to let go.

She began digging for Themis and Neptune's balls when a rough hand grabbed her arm and twisted it harshly. Yelping at the sharp pain, she dropped the two Poké balls, and watched them roll out of her reach.

The rain jacket dude looked down at her. "So," he said casually. "You have a female Eevee?"

Dawn held still. "No," she said.

His fingers tightened, and she had to grit her teeth to not let out a sound in pain. "Call off your Pokémon," he ordered.

When she hesitated, his hands tightened even further. This time, she did squeal. "Now!"

"Okay, okay! Sekhmet, stop!"

Her Luxray had just pinned the Espeon down, her jaws at its throat, but at her call looked back. Her golden eyes snapped furiously at the man holding Dawn, and she hesitated, clearly unwilling to let the psychic Eeveelution go.

Anon made the decision for her. Taking advantage of Sekhmet's hesitation, its eyes and gem glowed brightly as it grabbed Sekhmet and threw her off of it. This time, it was her pinned down to the ground.

Helios let out a sound of protest, but Kanon simply bit down harder, and a glowering specter of an eye drifted out, staring down evilly at the psychic. Helios stumbled as the specter descended upon him, and his own eyes turned blank as his struggles to move slowed down.

She was stuck. And in danger.

"Tell the truth," he ordered, one hand going to her throat. It took everything she had to not scream and struggle, because as bad as this situation was she knew it could be much, much worse. "Do you have a female Eevee?"

How did he know whether she was lying or not? Her head spun in fear. Despite all the self-defense training she'd gone through with Maylene and in martial art classes, she was stuck right now, and she didn't see an opportunity to do anything –

He had a psychic. The Espeon was somehow informing this guy whether she was telling the truth or not.

"Not here," she said, struggling to compose her thoughts and protect her mind. Jackie had taught her how to do this. Focus, take deep breaths, and imagine a song running through her head.

One of Lyra's favourite songs came to mind. It was a good song, a brave song, and she needed all the courage she could get right now.

_You shout it out, but I can't hear a word you say . . . ._

Rain jacket guy didn't tighten his grip again, so apparently he was satisfied with the truthfulness of her answer. The clouds above must have shifted, because the moonlight hit him. She shuddered when she saw a small splatter of blood on his sleeve.

He noticed. "Ah, right," he said casually. "Sorry you had to see that. But you have to admit, Douglas was pretty annoying. Always going on about how he was going to collect all of the Eeveelutions and end up being the Eevee Champion."

Dawn had no idea what he was going on about, but she kept her mouth shut.

_I'm talking loud, not saying much . . . . _

"My name's Dean," he said. "A simple Eevee breeder who just wants to breed a shiny Eevee. Nothing too fancy, right?"

She nodded jerkily, mind focused on the lyrics of the song. The singer – Etta Furler – was apparently a favourite of Lyra's, a woman who lived in Unova. She wasn't exactly mainstream, but Lyra was a huge fan nonetheless, and always sent Dawn links to her songs. This one – _Titanium_ – had always been one of her favourites. Even her mom liked it enough to use it as background music for one of her performances.

He thrust his hand inside her coat's pocket, and pulled out Helios and Sekhmet's balls. He returned Sekhmet, and tried to return Helios, only for the light to flicker. "Oh, right," he said, nodding towards his Umbreon. "Good job with the mean look, Kanon."

Mean look? So that was what that specter of the evil eye had been. A spell of maliciousness to prevent Helios from being able to retreat from the fight, or flee to get help.

Helios blinked when the mean look wore off, but before he could try anything, Dean returned him to his ball. Anon trotted over to Themis and Neptune's Poké balls and retrieved them for its trainer.

"Good," he said, as Kanon slunk over to Douglas to detach the three balls from his belt. A moan from Douglas told Dawn that he was still alive, but he couldn't move, let alone do anything. "I've been tagging around this idiot for weeks, and finally he's come in helpful."

"I won't tell anyone if you let me go," she offered, desperately searching for something to do. He had just taken all of her Pokémon from her, and she had to find a way to get them back. She couldn't abandon them, not to him, or to anyone. But especially not to him. He scared her. If she didn't get them back, she wasn't sure what would happen to her Pokémon.

Mespirit, she was such an _idiot_, she should have been keeping a better eye out, or had out another Pokémon along with Helios. Instead, she was now in _this_ situation, where she wasn't even sure she'd get out alive.

Remembering Anon, she hurriedly began singing the song inside her head again. How strong of a psychic the Espeon was, she didn't know, but if it was strong enough to know when she was lying or not and convey that to Dean, she wasn't going to underestimate it.

_Ricochet, you take your aim . . . ._

"I'm sure you won't," he said, sounding amused. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to let you go."

Dawn didn't get her hopes up at his words. He didn't prove her wrong.

"We're going to go back to the center, and you're going to get your Eevee. You are _not_," he continued sternly. "Going to make a fuss, or seek help. Do you know what happens to a Pokémon when the ball they're in breaks?"

She tried to quell the fear. "They're stuck," she said. "But they're safe." Juni had once accidentally crushed Jackie's Poké ball, but after taking the remnants of the ball to a repairman, the Medicham had been given a new ball and was perfectly fine.

He chuckled. "That's because of the developments in modern technology. Even just a decade ago, a Poké ball breaking meant the death of the Pokémon inside. Nowadays, it's possible to 'bring the Pokémon back', so to speak, if you can recover the chip inside. If the chip gets broken though . . . it's bye-bye, Pokémon."

Dean took out some kind of handheld device and popped in one of her Poké balls. "This is a special device that can crush the chip," he said, tightening his hold over it. She struggled, terrified that he would carry out his threat. "If you try anything, your Pokémon dies. Understood?"

"Yeah," she said. And she did. She and her Pokémon were currently lined up at the edge of a cliff. One wrong move meant that they all fell.

And it was her responsibility to make sure they all got out of it safe.

_Stone-heart . . . ._

* * *

They got back to the center without any problems – on Dean's part, anyways. Granted, it was dark, and it wasn't exactly as if Dawn was actively making faces for help, but still. Wasn't Dean walking a little too close to her for appropriateness? Couldn't they notice how creepy he was?

Dawn kept her face as impassive as she could and tried very hard not to lose hope, even as she wanted to cry. It was, essentially, a choice between her other Pokémon and her life for Faith she was making. Sure, if her plan worked, the best outcome would mean that she got away safe and sound, but if something went wrong . . . .

She wondered, rather morbidly, what it would be like for a Pokémon if the chip was crushed. She tried not to feel too sick at the gruesome images her overactive imagination conjured up in her mind.

The nurse at the counter smiled at them, but she was distracted with another trainer. Dean led her to the PC room.

"My Eevee's with my mom," she explained as she logged into the PC by swiping her trainer's ID into the slot. The computer beeped in recognition, and loudly hummed as it logged her into the system. "I have to call her and ask for her to send her over."

Dean nodded, and then showed her the device again, one of her Poké balls still fitted into it. "Don't try anything," he said.

"Okay," she whispered, and then sent a request for a call. As they both waited for Johanna to pick up, each dial tone sounded like a death sentence to her.

_You shoot me down, but I get up . . . ._

Anon was still in the room. Kanon had been returned, so as to not crowd up the room too much, but the Espeon was still out. She had to relax and clear her mind, or at least focus enough to protect her mental state.

The video screen suddenly popped into a low-quality feed of her mom, making Dawn jump slightly. _"Dawn?"_ Johanna asked, in a bathrobe and wearing a facial mask. Dean probably wouldn't recognize her as Johanna Steele, what with the video being so poor in quality and her face made to look like any tired housewife's late at night.

Whether that was good or not, she didn't know. What she did know was she had one chance to get it right.

Dawn forced a bright smile. "Hi, Mommy," she chirped happily, sounding the exact opposite of how she felt. Carefree, cheerful, happy. "It's your Dawnie!"

Dean prodded her back. Dawn kept her smile glued to her face.

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose . . . ._

Johanna smiled slightly. "_I missed you too," _she said_. "What's up? And where are you calling from?"_

Dawn swung her feet back and forth, the picture of casualness even if her mom wouldn't notice that bit. "Just missed you all of a sudden," she said. She considered mentioning how Medusa and Frejya had both evolved, before deciding that the conversation dragging on too long would probably wear at Dean's patience. "I'm at Pastoria still. At the center and all. Hey mom," she said, taking charge of the conversation before Johanna could ask any other questions or change the topic herself. "Can you send my Eevee over? I kinda need her."

_"Your Eevee?" _Johanna asked._ "Oh, do you need her now?"_

She heard Dean shifting. He was out of the webcam's range, so he wouldn't have his image caught, but Dawn could see him looking a little impatient.

Dawn swallowed, and when she spoke her voice was strong. "Yeah."

Johanna nodded. "_Hang on,"_ she said. _"She's been going over to Barry's. Margaret's been spoiling her . . . ." _she trailed off as she walked out of the camera's range. Dawn was left staring out of the home computer's webcam, looking at the grainy image of her house's kitchen. Clean, but empty of any Pokémon.

It was barely three minutes, but to Dawn the time felt like eternity stretched out. Johanna returned, looking a little sheepish even through the facial mask. _"Can you hang on a little longer?"_ she asked.

"Why?" Dawn asked.

_"Well,"_ Johanna smiled nervously. _"Your Eevee accidentally got herself all covered in some really sticky syrup. Margaret's trying to wash her out right now, but you know how some __Pokémon__ get when you try to give them a shower."_

Faith all covered in sticky syrup was a pretty funny image. Dawn might have enjoyed it a little more had the circumstances been different. "Do you know how long it'll take for her to, you know, unstick?"

Johanna shrugged_. "Margie was nearly done when I phoned her. She said she'll come over in less than five minutes. It shouldn't be too urgent – you can wait, right?"_

Dean didn't make any impatient sounds, so Dawn assumed that he was alright. "Yeah," she said. Five minutes.

But then Dean made a slight cutting motion with his hands, and she felt her heart sink. "I feel kind of icky," she said reluctantly. "Can you send her over when you get her? As soon as possible? I want to take a shower."

Johanna made a pouting face. _"You can't talk with your mom for a longer time?"_ she asked.

She wanted to. But Dean wouldn't have it. "Sorry," she said, sincere.

Johanna sighed. "_Fine, fine. But Dawn, be careful, alright_?"

Yeah, a little late for that. "Alright," she said.

A small smile was visible through her mom's facial mask_. "I love you."_

"I love you too." The lump at her throat was really great, but somehow she said the words without choking.

Johanna wasn't going to hang up first, so Dawn reached out with a shaking hand and disconnected the video chat, the last image being that of her mom's smiling face. Then, she turned to her Pokémon PC boxes and waited for Faith to be deposited by her mom.

Faith. The Eevee was such a bright and happy furball. Sure, she was rare, but there was more to her than that. She was such a happy Pokémon. And she still had evolution to look forward to.

And Themis. Her Golbat would be heartbroken. If, well, she wasn't actually broken first.

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall . . . ._

The PC room's door opening had both Dean and Dawn tensing. After putting a heavy hand on Dawn's shoulder in silent warning, Dean turned around to face the newcomer. Dawn just continued to stare blankly at the PC box. Two minutes had passed.

"Oh, sorry," a valley girl's voice drawled from behind her. "Am I interrupting something?"

A Pokémon let out a growling purr. "Shush, Ever," the girl said.

"No, no," Dean said, friendly. "Just waiting for a Pokémon."

Dawn kept her eyes on the screen, barely mumbling a hi. Let herself be seen as a surly teenage girl if it came down to it.

"Oh, you have an Espeon! Ever, say hi!"

Dawn gave a small glance, and found a Leafeon warily approaching the Espeon and giving a cursory sniff.

Dean laughed. "A great looking Leafeon you have there," he noted.

"Aww, thanks. And your Espeon's, like, pretty gorgeous as well. A girl?"

"No," Dean said. "Yours?"

"Ever's a boy. But he's pretty great!" the valley girl chirped.

The computer beeped suddenly, and Dean's attention was drawn to the screen, where a new Pokémon had been deposited.

Dawn swallowed, and her own saliva tasted like disgusting bile. Well, it made sense. If she gave Faith over, she was a disgusting person.

"Take her out," Dean ordered. "Please," he added, remembering that there was another person witnessing all this without understanding its significance.

Dawn slowly began to drag Faith out of the PC when the Leafeon suddenly struck, leaves glowing. The Espeon scrambled to dodge, but the blades crossed over each other as they struck their target squarely, and it let out a cry of pain.

At the same time, Dean was abruptly yanked back, and his head was slammed into the desk, nose first, as his legs were swept out from under him. Letting out a cry of surprise and pain, he dropped the device and her Poké ball. When they hit the ground with a loud clatter, the Poké ball – now she could see that it was Neptune's – dislodged and bounced under the desk.

Dawn dove for the ball. When she managed to grab it, she held it close to herself as she scrambled out of Dean – and Anon's – reach, nearly shuddering with relief that one of her Pokémon was in her hands once more.

"Are you alright?"

The valley girl drawl was gone, replaced with a strict, professional voice. Despite being dressed in a casual skirt and blouse in ridiculously bright colours, Ranger Allison Halliday looked serious and dangerous, especially as she tightened her grip on Dean and made him swear in a muffled voice. He squirmed, but Ranger Halliday didn't budge.

She looked really, really awesome, and Dean getting a taste of his own medicine was especially awesome. "Yeah," Dawn said, as Ever the Leafeon neatly KO'd the Espeon with the second x-scissor. "He still has three of my Pokémon, and before we came here he attacked a guy named Douglas and took three of his Pokémon too."

Ranger Halliday cuffed him as more people, this time in uniform, came in. A police officer wrapped a large jacket around her, and began leading her out of the room. "Wait!" she said, struggling. "I need my Pokémon back!"

"Do we need to keep them back as evidence?" someone asked, and Dawn's blood turned cold. She didn't want her Pokémon to be labelled as evidence and kept indefinitely!

Ranger Halliday shook her head. "No," she said as she dug through Dean's coat and pulled out a handful of Poké balls. "This girl's been through enough. Let her get her Pokémon back."

Dawn nearly wept in relief as another detective checked the balls and her ID before returning the other three back to her. Ranger Halliday promised that she would log out of the computer, so Dawn trusted her and left, ushered by the officer who had lent her his jacket.

Once outside in the center's waiting room area, she nearly collapsed, relieved and yet strangely terrified. A ranger, who introduced himself as Jeffery, lent her his cell phone, and she called her mom with trembling fingers.

_"Are you alright?"_ was the first thing Johanna asked her after picking up almost immediately.

Dawn wanted to cry. She was relieved, but she was scared and she still felt like she was on the edge of a cliff, with one wrong movement threatening to throw her off. "Yeah," she answered, immensely thankful for her family.

In fear of kidnapping or being threatened, she and her mom had worked out a system. When she was being threatened or something and was in need of help, she was supposed to speak an agreed-upon statement – that being "Hi Mommy, it's Dawnie". It was perfect because it was too embarrassing of a sentence to be used in normal times.

Her mom would, after confirming where she was, send for help and then stall for as long as she could until help arrived.

It was the first time they had actually had to use it, and Dawn had never been more glad for this training. If they hadn't . . . .

Tears prickled her eyes. If they hadn't, she could have been killed. Dean had told her his name, and she had seen his face. She could have identified him. He wouldn't have let her go free, not so easily. She could have lost her life, or her Pokémon.

"No," she said truthfully. "I was really scared."

_"I'm flying out there,"_ Johanna said immediately.

Dawn sniffed, making sure to hold the phone away so the sound didn't transmit. "No, no, it's okay. It's late, and you should get rest. What would the world do if they saw Johanna Steele without makeup and stage costume?" she added the last part as a joke.

There was a sigh from the other end of the line. _"Dawn . . . ."_

She saw the ranger coming. "Gotta go," she muttered. "I'll call again tomorrow. I love you so much."

_"I love you too,"_ Johanna managed to get in before Dawn hung up and wiped at her eyes.

The ranger looked at her. He looked friendlier than Ranger Halliday had, but that could have just been the pity and empathy in his eyes. "You alright?" he asked, handing her a one-time use cup filled with a hot beverage. Hot chocolate. The cheap kind, but it was warm, and a nice gesture.

"Yeah," she said, voice thick and betraying her clearly not-alright state. "Thank you for letting me use your phone," she said, handing it over to him.

He nodded, and took it. "You know," he said. "Can you come with us, just so we can take down your statement? We probably won't need you to testify at his trial – we've got a lot of evidence against this guy, enough to lock him up for a very long time – but we do need to take down your statement."

Dawn sniffed, the backed-up tears having filled her nose with snot. She was tired, she just wanted to see her Pokémon and make sure they were safe.

Actually, no, she had to get them healed up first.

The ranger smiled encouragingly. "It won't be long," he promised.

Dawn sniffed one last time, and then straightened her back. "Can I get my Pokémon to the nurse first?" she asked.

"Of course," Ranger Jeffery said immediately.

"Dawn?"

She turned around to see Barry, standing in a wrinkled t-shirt and sweatpants. His hair looked mussed up, and he looked like he had rolled out of bed. Probably to check out what the commotion was about. At his side, Billie Jean looked at her in worry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

The ranger looked at her. "A friend?" he asked quietly.

Dawn nodded. "Nothing," she replied to Barry's question. "Not . . . not anymore."

He knew her too well to even buy that for a second. He marched right to her side, and put an arm around her shoulders before flicking her lightly in the temple.

"Whoever it was," he mumbled, "I'm fining them."

Despite herself, Dawn burst out laughing, even if it was near hysterics. Barry was letting her know, in his own way, that he was right there to help her if she needed his support.

And she appreciated that. She really did.

"Can he be there?" she asked Ranger Jeffery as she handed over her Pokémon to the nurse, who looked at her sympathetically.

"Of course," he said. To Barry, he added "But you'll have to be quiet."

"Alright," Barry replied, not arguing. He gave her a solid pat to her shoulder and then finger-combed his hair as they were led into a separate area.

She held the hot cup tightly in her hands, ignoring the way they slightly burned at her palms. She was alive, her Pokémon were alive, and everything had gone well.

Dawn took a deep breath as Ranger Jeffery asked a question to get her talking.

_I am titanium._

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Frejya (Lopunny), Medusa (Tangrowth)

_Home:_ Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts), Faith (Eevee)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Camarero (Rapidash), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Tyrogue)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), (Aipom, given to mom), (Cherubi, given to mom) Marcus (Heracross)

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togepi), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: God I've been wanting to get this arc out for a while now. And if you were wondering why the three stooges guy (Douglas) and ranger Allison (who actually has a Leafeon) got a specific mention, you now know. Dean's mons were named after Vocaloids Anon and Kanon (both are female, incidentally, but not here) and Jeffery is also another ranger npc.

The song mentioned/quoted in the chapter, for those who don't know, is Titanium by David Guetta ft. Sia (incidentally, I mostly listened to the Spice Girls while writing this chapter :P). Etta Furler is the version of Sia in this universe since this site's policy is that you're not supposed to use real people. Is she important? Probably. When? Not for a very long time, and not in this story.

Sorry for the slight delay in updates - this was due to personal reasons.


	23. Navigating in the Swamp

A.S.107

September 18th

_I watched Barry challenge the gym leader today._

* * *

Despite what she had told her mom, Johanna flew over the next morning, concerned. Dawn woke up and went down to the reception area to find her mom, wearing sunglasses, a dark pea coat and scarf, talking to the nurse. At her feet were Faith and Selene.

Selene apparently sensed her coming, because the Ralts tugged at the edge of Johanna's coat and pointed to Dawn.

Johanna immediately abandoned the nurse to rush to her, flanked by Faith and Selene. "Are you alright?" she asked while Dawn crouched down to pet and greet the two small Pokémon. "I had to wait until I could contact the main house to get Jagger."

Dawn paled slightly at the mention of the Salamence. The fierce dragon had once been her mom's, as the 'J' name might have implied, but he had never been a fan of performing, and he didn't have the best control over his attacks, which made it a little too dangerous for him to be a part of the coordinating world. Now the Salamence mostly stayed at the Steele main house, apparently a battling Pokémon.

"You brought Jagger?" she asked. Another reason the Salamence didn't stay with Johanna was because Dawn was terrified of him. The dragon hadn't liked her too much when she had been younger. To be fair, that had been her fault for bothering him so often in the hopes of being more like Palmer with his Dragonite, but still, he scared her.

"He's in his ball, don't worry," Johanna said, waving away the issue. "Are you alright?"

Now that she was – somewhat – assured that a Salamence wasn't after her, Dawn relaxed. "I'm alright," she said.

Johanna, however, was her mom for a good reason. She cocked an eyebrow and looked at her with pressed lips.

"Really," Dawn protested, a little happy that her mom was worrying about her, but at the same time slightly exasperated at being treated like a child who needed to be coddled and protected. "Barry was there for me and he helped."

Mostly by tickling her until she had cried from laughing so hard after she had given her statement, but still. He had helped, and even ordered her to come see his upcoming gym battle against Crasher Wake later in the day.

Johanna relaxed slightly. "Barry's here?" she asked, looking relieved.

"Yup. He's going to have his gym battle soon." Today, actually. After she gave her statement, he had asked her if she wanted to come and watch, and she had promised she would be there to cheer him on. It was the first gym battle of his that she would be able to see in person.

Johanna might have said some more things, but at that moment something buzzed. She dug out her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen with exasperation. "Of all the-" she muttered.

"What is it?" Dawn asked, recognizing a chance to divert the attention away. The last thing she wanted was for her mom to be so focused onto this issue that she stopped her from travelling. This had to fill her bad luck quota for the journey, anyways.

Johanna tapped a few keys. "My agent," she said as the phone began ringing. "She wants to talk immediately."

"So answer her," Dawn encouraged. "Oh, and do you have Minerva on you? I can teach her fly – I got an HM for it."

Too late Dawn remembered just how she had gotten the HM.

But Johanna, distracted by her agent, pulled out Minerva's ball from her pocket instead of asking her how she had gotten the HM. "We'll talk after this," she promised, already answering her phone.

Dawn nodded, and hurried outside of the center to let her Noctowl out. "Hey, Minerva," she said when the Noctowl materialized.

Minerva hooted, and blinked happily.

She smiled. "Want to learn fly?"

The Noctowl blinked, this time a little more slowly, before she spread her wings and flew into the air to hover pointedly.

Dawn rolled her eyes. Of course her Pokémon would have sassy attitudes. "I mean the move," she said, grabbing the ball containing Themis and letting her Golbat out into the air. The two flying-types eyed each other and gave their greetings, Minerva with a nod and Themis with a fanged grin.

"Themis," Dawn said. "Can you demonstrate fly?"

Her grin widening, Themis spread her leathery wings to their full extent before her body was surrounded by the bluish aura. She shot up straight into the sky once the aura had fully enveloped her, and soon came rushing down with a force that would do a considerable amount of damage if it connected with something.

Right before she hit the ground, however, she skidded to a hover once more, and the bluish sheath of energy dissipated, leaving Themis looking smug.

Her Golbat loved battling, that much Dawn knew. But there was no denying her love for a dramatic flair and showing off her talents to others.

Once she'd seen the difference between the move and actual flying, Minerva consented to learning fly from the HM. Being her first time learning from an HM, she shifted a bit in discomfort, but soon relaxed enough for the hidden machine to work and impart its information to her.

"Practise that at home," Dawn instructed. "You're good at the technical stuff, so focus on keeping it quick, and not running into anything. The energy shield should protect you from a lot of things, but it's not invincible."

Minerva nodded, and then, with Themis, began practicing their fly techniques. While they were in the middle of flying up into the sky, Johanna stepped out of the center, no longer on the phone.

Dawn sighed. "What did your agent want?" she asked in an attempt to make her mom focus on a different topic.

"For me to perform at the Valerie's Secret Fashion Show this year," came the reply, said so casually that Dawn knew Johanna wouldn't just let the issue pass by. Great. "Apparently they want a coordinator to open and close the event for this show, and they wanted me for the job."

"Valerie's Secret? Isn't that the underwear brand?"

"Lingerie," her mom corrected.

Dawn scratched the back of her head with her pinky nail as Minerva and Themis came flying down, buffeting gales of wind from their great wingspans around them. "Does that mean you'll be wearing a bra and panties while you perform?" she asked, worried.

Johanna cracked a genuine smile. "I won't. Others will, but I won't. Actually, I won't even be on stage. Jackie will, probably, and maybe someone else as well."

She laughed, partially in relief and partially to prolong the moment.

Unfortunately, her stalling techniques had no effect.

"Dawn," Johanna said, smile fading, and she knew that it was time for the serious part of the talk. "Were you hurt?"

She shook her head. She wasn't the one whose head had been bashed by a stone, or attacked, or robbed of an Eeveelution.

"But you were scared," Johanna continued, and this time Dawn nodded. "Oh, Dawn."

Her mom hugged her, wrapping her arms around her head and holding her tightly to her body. Dawn's nose filled with the sweet smell of irises, the scent of her mom's favourite perfume and body lotion.

"Do you want to come home?" she asked quietly, after placing a kiss on the top of her tuque-covered head.

A part of her did, of course. After giving her statement and letting Barry try and cheer her up by boasting loudly about how well his Pokémon had come along during their training, she had been less lonely, but soon an irritated older trainer had come out and told the two of them to shut up and stop making such a ruckus in the hallway.

She had let Barry go to sleep, because he had his gym battle coming up, but going into her borrowed room and curling up in the cheap, thin sheets that didn't offer her any comfort, she had found herself greatly missing home.

Dawn had let out Neptune and Themis to keep her company, but they weren't exactly the best to cuddle with. Still, her other Pokémon were with the nurse overnight so they could be properly looked at, and their company was greatly appreciated.

After telling them what had happened and reassuring the two of them that nothing had happened and everything was alright, she had burrowed into a messy nest she had somehow ended up constructing on her bed, wrapped in her favourite sweater and wearing a pair of fuzzy socks.

Sleep had evaded her until one in the morning, making her toss and turn. Neptune didn't complain about all the sounds she was making, and even Themis refrained from laughing at her.

And then the few hours of fitful sleep she did get hadn't been so great. In her nightmares, she had seen her Pokémon all lying on the ground, broken into pieces as if they had been ceramic figurines instead of real Pokémon, and try as she might to put them back, they couldn't be fixed.

But everybody had brushes with bad luck. Dawn knew she could handle herself now, and the odds were that she had already had a brush with trouble, so she probably wouldn't get into any more problems.

Home, with a soft mattress and thick, warm blankets was a really tempting idea, but she still wanted to be a travelling trainer. She was doing pretty well, and she knew she was good at this. She wanted to keep doing this – training her Pokémon, challenging herself, rising up.

"No," she said.

Johanna pursed her lips. "Will you promise to be careful and safe?" she asked. "Can you stick with Barry so that the two of you aren't alone?"

"I always have my Pokémon on me," Dawn said immediately.

But Johanna gave her a pointed look. "I would still prefer it if you stuck with Barry, even after this. It's safer to travel with someone else, even if you have your own Pokémon."

Dawn knew that tone. It was the tone of voice she took when she 'suggested' something, but really was just telling her to do it.

Her mom wouldn't be budged on this issue.

"I guess," she relented. "Yes. Okay, I'll stick with him."

* * *

Her mom had to leave soon, partially to return Jagger to his current trainer, and also because she had to work. They still ate breakfast together, not at the cafeteria of the Pokémon Center but a nice café. Barry came along, and Johanna treated them to a nice meal of toast, sausages and eggs. The good kind.

"Take care," her mom said, before she flew off on Jagger's back. Dawn waved until they were gone from sight, and then joined Barry in heading to the gym.

"So who are you using?" Dawn asked.

Barry was eager to talk about what he had planned. "I was thinking of using Bruce," he began talking, his words spilling out in a rush as his tongue nearly tripped to get them out as soon as he could. "Because he just evolved two days ago into a Hitmonlee, and man, you should have seen that, Dawn, because it was just so _awesome_, but then we all thought, nah, that's not the best way to do this."

"He evolved?" Dawn managed to throw her two cents in when he paused to take in some air for his poor lungs. "That's great!"

Barry nodded. "So we all decided that he needed to be saved for Snowpoint and Canalave, since he'll really rock there and kick some ice-type butt. But for Pastoria, Champ was all ready to go, so he's going to be strong in this gym."

"Going for the type advantage," Dawn said with a nod.

Barry barely acknowledged her. He was so into explaining, she could practically feel his passionate state radiating off of him. "So then we said, okay, so Camarero's out for this one, since he's not going to like water. Starling, maybe, because he's really strong and fast, so we decided he'd be awesome for the gym trainer battles. I considered Allen because he's a water-type and who best in an arena where everything's great for water-types, right?"

He was getting really hyper. She hadn't seen him this excited since . . .

Well, since they had heard that they might be allowed to go on their journey early, way back when their mothers had first heard about the Pokédex project.

The Pastoria Gym was familiar to her from the last tournament. They walked in, and Barry talked to the receptionist to confirm his appointment for his badge challenge.

"Your fifth badge," the receptionist said, sounding impressed. "That's quite the feat for such a young man. You must be a talented trainer."

Barry puffed his chest out, and Dawn resisted the urge to – lightly – smack him back down to size. "I am," he agreed, grinning widely. "And so is she. She'll be here soon as well."

The receptionist nodded, and then handed him his ID card back. "You're good to go. Good luck in there, young man."

"Thanks!"

Barry needed no other instructions. He went right up and began battling through the gym trainers with Starling and Marcus, his newly-caught Heracross. The fighting bug seemed friendly enough, when he wasn't fiercely wrestling with his opponents or jabbing at them with his horn.

Soon he had battled through the swimmers and sailors that worked in the gym, and was facing the Gym Leader of Pastoria himself in the main arena.

"Master!" he bellowed, and even without a microphone, his voice echoed across the pool-like gym, sound magnifying against the slick, hard tiles covering the walls.

As befitting a water-type gym challenge, the large arena being used was water-based. It wasn't the same one they had used in the tournament's final before, but it was still impressively sized.

And a marsh. Around half of it was underwater, and at least a third of the ground not underwater was boggy and muddy.

Barry had been right – Camarero would have hated it.

Dawn took observations of her own so she would be better prepared for her own battle.

"I'm here to challenge you and prove myself as a worthy student!" Barry shouted.

"I'm not your master!" the Pastoria Gym Leader shouted back, sounding rather exasperated.

Dawn laughed into the sleeve of her coat, and let out Helios and Neptune, since they were the smallest of her current team. "We're watching Barry's battle," she told them when both turned to her with questioning looks as to why they were in the sides instead of in the arena itself.

They turned to watch the battle when the referee recited the rules and ordered the match to start.

Wake's first choice in the gym challenge was a Gyarados, a huge, thrashing serpent. Dawn reached for Sekhmet's ball as the Gyarados roared, and found comfort in the electric-type's worn ball.

Barry didn't have an electric-type like Sekhmet he could depend on like she did when faced with something like a Gyarados. But he did have a Heracross, a Pokémon who, despite being the stereotypically weak bug-type, was known for easily flipping even incredibly heavy Pokémon with its horn.

"Marcus, you're up!"

The Heracross, like any sane creature, flinched a little when he saw the leviathan he had to face in battle, but he shook off the primal fear the sight of the Gyarados triggered and straightened himself.

Crasher Wake looked a little bemused at the nickname Barry had given his Heracross, but he didn't let that stop him. "Alejandro!" he shouted, and the Gyarados roared in reply. "Twister!"

The huge leviathan twisted his body and spun out a whirling mass of howling winds laced with bits of blue, draconic flames. The concentrated twister, focused but deadly, surged forth, and Marcus, despite his strength and sturdy shell, looked so frail when faced with the dragon's storm that Dawn cringed in phantom pain.

But Barry wasn't going to let his Pokémon get caught up in the twister. "Rock tomb, in front of you!"

Lowering his head, Marcus smacked the ground with his horn, and then stumbled back as rocks erupted out in a geyser of hardened dirt. The rock tombs just barely managed to get up in a wall in front of the Heracross when the concentrated chaos of dragon wind struck.

From her spot in the middle of the field, Dawn saw the wind edged with dragon fire wear away at the rocks – hardened mud, really – bit by bit like a sander would, until the rock tombs crumbled like a wet cookie and fell into pieces.

The twister, weakened and smaller, still swept up the loosened mud pieces and surged towards Marcus, no longer held back. "Fury attack and aerial ace!" Barry shouted, punching the air in front of him a few times in excitement.

On the field, Marcus snorted as he lowered his head, and then dashed forwards to charge the twister headfirst with his horn glowing white. He cut through the bits of mud with his horn, and flit through the winds with surprisingly nimble speed.

"Dragon rage!"

This time, when Alejandro was spitting out dragon fire, he didn't add it to the twister to give it an extra draconic edge. He brought up the bluish flames, and let the fireball fly in its pure, mystical form from its threatening jaws.

Marcus barely managed to evade it, the sphere of dragon fire barely slipping by and leaving a crater in the ground where it hit.

And then the bug was facing the sea serpent up front.

It might have been a comical sight. Marcus was a Heracross, and those bugs were big. She was pretty sure he was still growing, and even then he was as tall as she was.

In comparison, Alejandro was the biggest, meanest-looking Gyarados she had seen so far. He looked like he could easily star in a fantasy movie as a monster from the deep seas, summoning ship-breaking storms and leaving behind no survivors. His fangs were yellowed, but they were long and sharp like knives, and his barbells lashed out angrily as he breathed, vicious eyes narrowed.

Marcus did better than what she might have in his position. Instead of quivering in fear, the Heracross charged the Gyarados.

"Night slash!"

Horn wrapped in dark energy, Marcus dove.

Alejandro coiled its body, letting the mighty horn hit and slide off of the tougher scales he had on his sides rather than the 'softer' underbelly. It didn't look particularly soft.

"Waterfall and brine!"

"Get out of there, aerial ace!"

Water from the ground trickled up and wrapped around Alejandro before he rushed towards Marcus like a destructive, draconic freight train. That was the force required to part waterfalls and climb their sheer pressure, and Dawn wondered as she saw the water-wrapped Gyarados charge like that how any creature could stand up to a force like that.

Marcus used his nimble aerial movements and smaller size to advantage, however, and flitted up and sideways. He wouldn't be able to rival Starling in terms of aerial tricks, but the movements were skillful enough that he slipped past the charging Gyarados.

But then the water slipped off of Alejandro as the Gyarados skidded, and was shaken off of his body onto the place where Marcus had fled to evade being struck. The water wasn't concentrated, but it was enough of a deluge that Marcus was forced to land on the ground. The Heracross sputtered, and stumbled as he landed.

"Twister!"

Marcus tried to fly out of the way, but his wings wouldn't fly, and he only barely escaped being caught up in the twister when he slammed his horn against the ground to put up a desperate rock tomb. The barrier was barely anything but mud, and the twister ripped through the small defenses easily, but it gave him time to scramble back.

It had been timed perfectly. Knowing that Marcus would have to dodge Alejandro's waterfall charge, Wake had ordered a brine so that the water would fall and soak his wings so that he wouldn't be able to try aerial tricks.

But it wasn't just that foresight that impressed Dawn. It was how Alejandro himself had known where to spread the brine. He could have cast it wider to cover a larger area, but that would have spread the saltwater deluge thin, allowing Marcus to either still fly or dry off faster.

Alejandro was smart and experienced enough that he knew how to adjust the strategies his trainer gave him. Somehow he had known the general areas where Marcus would dodge to and sent the brine attack to those places only.

Maybe it was because Heracross weren't long-distance attackers by nature. Maybe he knew that to really attack – and attack was really the only option, as Heracross weren't Pokémon that won battles by being sly and tricky – Marcus, even when dodging blows, would stay near.

Dawn glanced at Helios. He could teleport, and – somewhat – attack from the distance. Their battle would probably be different in comparison to Marcus and Barry's.

"Finish it with waterfall!"

Roaring loudly enough to scare anyone, Alejandro charged, water packed.

"Rock tomb!"

This time, the rocks that the ground – boggy and muddy as it was – spat up at Marcus slamming his horn down weren't flimsy mud hastily pulled up. Marcus put in all his strength, and the results reflected his will. Mud pressured into being as hard as rock, barely damp, flew out of the ground, and Marcus slammed his horn into them so that they would fly towards his charging opponent.

The first two rocks, Alejandro broke through headfirst, and it didn't look like there was much of a difference. The third, larger rock, however, left mud in his face, and slowed down his speed.

Marcus was still hit.

Dawn cringed at the moment of impact, and when she opened her eyes Marcus lay on the ground, muddy and wet and definitely unconscious. Rocks and mud crumbled off of Alejandro's face, but the Gyarados didn't look all that winded.

Not good.

Barry recalled him, and then sent out Allen. Immediately upon release, the Floatzel growled and spewed out a scattering of glowing light in the form of stars that swiftly flew to the Gyarados.

"Twister!" Crasher Wake shouted to Alejandro, who flinched when the swifts struck his face.

"Aqua jet and pursuit, avoid it and then sonic boom!"

In a jet of water, Allen burst forth to avoid the twister, and then he rocketed around the winds to face Alejandro's back. He struck the base of the neck right after the head ended, and then jumped, propelling himself by kicking away at the Gyarados.

"Brine!"

Alejandro spat out water while he swung his powerful tail and slammed it into the pool he rested in, letting the salt water from within his body mix with the small wave he had artificially created. The wave crested above both Pokémon, and then scattered down below.

Allen was drenched when he began descending back towards the ground, pulled down by gravity, but he was nimble and agile – he swung his tail like a cracking whip, and three loud booms echoed in the ring. Each slash hit Alejandro, one on his torso, one on his left gill, and one right between his eyes.

Allen landed, and then was conceited enough to strike a pose. Dawn giggled while Helios rolled his eyes. Neptune just scowled and crossed his flippers in front of him, apparently unimpressed.

"Dragon rage, Alejandro!"

"Wait for it and then push-aqua jet into pursuit, Allen!"

As the Gyarados belched out the concentrated orb of dragon fire, Dawn wondered what exactly Barry was going for. Allen was probably fast enough to evade Alejandro's attack from the start without needing to 'wait for it', especially because the Gyarados clearly had slower movements. Evidently, Marcus had left his mark – no pun intended – on the Gyarados. Alejandro may have been too well-trained to show exhaustion directly, but he couldn't help how his body was slowing down.

So why charge so recklessly, headfirst into danger?

Allen waited, and instead of moving aside at the last minute, he jumped into the air.

And then, to all of their surprise, jumped _onto_ the ball of dragon fire. Much like a video game character leaping through floating devices, Allen rocketed off of the 'platform' the dragon rage had provided him with towards Alejandro, who, like his trainer, was more than flabbergasted to see his attack used that way.

But the Gyarados snapped out of it. Sure, the sight of Pokémon apparently being able to jump around on orbs of concentrated draconic energy was impressive, but he'd seen Pokémon do more impressive feats on the battlefield, and he didn't have time to pause.

Not ready to charge up an attack, he decided to dodge so he would get the extra split second to get ready.

Except Allen was pursuing him, locked on and following closely. Alejandro twisted, but Allen did as well, and the Floatzel was far more agile than the Gyarados was. The last of the water from the aqua jet flew off of him, following the momentum forwards, but Allen sharply veered and crashed straight into Alejandro, limbs and tail flailing wilding and fangs snapping, grabbing every part and fighting.

Alejandro roared in surprise and managed to buck Allen off, but the Floatzel only landed solidly on the ground before he whipped his tails again, cracking sharply and breaking the sound barrier. The harnessed energy generated by a speed fast enough for that feet surged forth, each like a little strike from a whip, and they threw Alejandro back a little.

But that little was enough. Tired, the Gyarados slunk down, huffing and puffing, before he closed his eyes.

"Well done," Crasher Wake said, recalling Alejandro. "You took down Alejandro. But this is only the beginning."

He sent out a Quagsire, a rubbery lizard-like creature that stretched its rounded limbs upon being released. "Rodolfo, rock tomb! Redecorate the field!"

Like Marcus had done in the previous match, Rodolfo slammed the ground, making it spit out rocks ranging in sizes. Instead of leaving them around like a barrier, however, he picked them up – very easily, she noted – and threw them towards Allen.

"Quick attack, Allen, dodge!" Barry barked.

Allen dove out of the way, but then backtracked a little when the next rock came flying. He tried to dive forth again, this time towards Rodolfo, aiming to finish things up close, when the Quagsire slammed his tail against the ground and let a wall-like boulder come out right in front of Allen.

Barry let out a cry of concern when Allen ran, headfirst, into the rock, but sighed in relief when the Floatzel dove back and gave a reassuring gesture towards his trainer after shaking it off. And then the Floatzel had to continue shifting, unable to quite advance because Rodolfo was alternating between throwing the rocks and slamming his tail to bring up larger rocks away from himself.

"Use a long-distanced attack!" Dawn shouted, feeling like her chest was closing up in frustration at the situation. It wasn't even her battle, but nonetheless she felt invested in it.

Barry made an impatient gesture. "Hey, it's my battle!" he shouted back.

He did have a point. Hoping he would interpret her silence as the apology and surrender it was meant to be, Dawn kept her quiet.

Neptune, however, looked offended, and stuck out his tongue while pulling down at the skin of his face with his flippers.

Surprised at this, Dawn giggled. "Thanks," she said, knowing that he did that in her defense. Even if Barry hadn't seen it, she appreciated Neptune doing that.

Helios sighed at Neptune's immaturity, but kept his quiet.

Until Barry ordered a swift and a water gun. Then, Neptune leapt onto his feet again to let out enraged cries and furious flipper movements. This time, Helios dragged Neptune back down, murmuring something placating.

"It's alright," Dawn said. "I'm sure Barry was already thinking of it when I said that."

The swift's lights temporarily blinded Rodolfo, and Allen followed through with a shot of concentrated water that struck Rodolfo on the side of his head. The Quagsire staggered, and Dawn cheered. It looked like Rodolfo would go down faster than Alejandro did. Champ could be saved for the last Pokémon Wake had up his sleeve.

But then Rodolfo regained his footing, and crouched on all fours on the boggy, muddy ground. He opened his mouth wide, and then almost inhaled up a large chunk of ground.

"Allen, sonic boom!" Barry shouted, apparently not liking what Rodolfo was planning.

Allen cracked his tails fast, and each sound wave, curved like a crescent blade, flew towards the Quagsire.

"Rodolfo, arcing mud bomb!" Wake barked out. "Follow with water pulse, get coverage for yourself!"

The mud bomb Rodolfo spat out with a loud belch flew, entrapped in a small casing of muddy water, until the sonic booms struck it. Then, the entire thing exploded, letting mud rain down everywhere in the arena.

Some landed on Allen, and the Floatzel had to clear away his eyesight while stumbling backwards. Rodolfo raised his stubby, rounded arms, and a ring of water came forth, bubbling and surging.

"Allen, dodge!"

Allen had one eye open, and he saw the water pulse. He tried to step backwards, but found a boulder – a remnant from the rock tomb that had missed before – in his way, stopping him from stepping back. Before he could dive away, the pulsing blast of water had caught up to him, enshrouding his entire body for a few brief moments.

But water pulse was an attack done with waves of sound as well as water. Barry grimaced as Allen staggered after being released. "Allen?" he called.

The Floatzel, disoriented, tripped and fell.

"Allen, listen," Barry called, and Dawn could hear him forcing himself to remain calm so that he didn't further confuse his Pokémon. "Head left. No, not that way, the other way."

Crasher Wake wasn't going to sit around waiting for Allen to snap out of his confused state, however. "Rodolfo, mud bomb again."

The Quagsire gargled up mud, and while this time the projectile was smaller it still flew in a large arc towards Allen, who was essentially a sitting duck.

"Allen, come on," Barry said gently even as the mud bomb came sailing. "Keep moving."

His Floatzel crawled on all fours, trying to not fall over and hurt himself some more. The mud bomb struck him on his face, and he cried out as his head struck the ground after being hit.

"Allen, you can do this," Barry said.

"Rodolfo, yawn."

The Quagsire opened its toothless mouth wide once more, but what came out was a large, almost transparent bubble that floated over to Allen.

"Allen, come on," Barry said, and Dawn had to give him credit for not even letting a bit of frustration slip into his voice.

Allen tried, he really did. He reached out with one front paw, then with the other, even when he was confused and his head had to hurt from being hit from two different places and he was half-blind from the mud coating his face.

The bubble hit, though, and Allen yawned when it popped.

"Allen," Barry said. "Neptune's watching. Swift."

Neptune blinked when he heard his name. Allen, on the ground, gritted his teeth, and through the increasing waves of tiredness and confusion, opened his mouth to spit out a trickle of swifts, nowhere near the barrage he had first unleashed.

The glowing light stars, however, were true as they always were. They flew forth, and despite Rodolfo's efforts to protect himself with a water pulse, hit the Quagsire.

Allen fell asleep just as Rodolfo went down.

Crasher Wake recalled his Quagsire, and Barry returned Allen. "He's not out yet," he said firmly.

Dawn made a pained face. Allen was confused, and not only asleep, but had to be on the verge of fainting. At most, Barry could only just send him out to take a hit for Champ if things got dire to give his starter a chance to catch a quick break.

"Sergio, you're up!"

This time it was Crasher Wake's side that had the sleek, orange water mammal instead of Barry's. The differences, however, were clear. Sergio was bigger than Allen was, and his fur was sleeker, although there were areas where the smooth, thick waterproof fur was disturbed by scars.

One thing Dawn had learned from watching Palmer and other powerful trainers was that the more famous ones had what was referred to as a signature Pokémon. Often the strongest member on the trainer's team, it was the Pokémon the trainer was known for. Many times, this honor and distinction went to the starter Pokémon, but that wasn't always the case.

The signature Pokémon was sometimes even more famous than the actual trainer, and its name was important, sometimes transcending from a simple name into a title.

Such was the case with Sergio for Crasher Wake. The original Sergio the Floatzel, Dawn heard, had retired from battling competitively, but Crasher Wake's signature Pokémon, his star member of the team, was a Floatzel. Other Floatzel he trained had inherited the title 'Sergio' once the title holder had to retire from battling.

This one was probably the third or fourth Sergio, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. Rather, Dawn was worried, because the fact that it was named such meant that this was a Floatzel that would be very good at battling, enough to live up to the expectations of being a powerful, famous gym leader's star Pokémon.

But then Barry sent out _his_ final Pokémon. Champ materialized slightly above the ground, so that he landed with an earth-shaking 'thud'. He shook his spiked head out, adjusted his stance, and roared.

Torterra were herbivores. Half their energy they produced themselves, like most grass-types did through photosynthesis. They preferred being passive to aggressive.

But that didn't mean they were weak. When needed, they could fight back against predators, and when they did it was like the very forest was turning against them.

There was no trace of the cute Turtwig or easygoing Grotle. There was a Torterra on the field, and it was ready to unleash a forest's wrath on a creature of water.

Sure, it would probably be a hard fight, even with the type advantage. Crasher Wake had to have some method of dealing with things like that, as demonstrated by Rodolfo and Alejandro, who would throw a wrench in the plans of those who tried to sweep with electric or grass-types only. But this was it. One more and then they would be done.

"Go Champ!" she shouted. "Go Barry!"

Barry raised a hand in acknowledgement, although his eyes never left the arena. Champ lifted one large leg and stomped it on the ground, letting out a loud bellow.

Sergio didn't make loud sounds or flashy movements. He simply bared his fangs and hissed.

Her worries didn't disappear completely, but they did settle down.

"Champ, razor leaf!" Barry shouted. "Don't let him get up close to you!"

Sharp leaves shot forth from the tree on the Torterra's back, and hurtled towards the Floatzel.

"Aqua jet."

Sergio was even faster than Allen. The water rushed up his body, coating him lightly in his best element, and then Sergio was a blur. Bits of water splashed off of his fur when he made sharp turns or quick stops, but his movements were too fast to even let a single leaf strike him.

It was a stroke of luck, however, when the Floatzel abruptly tripped. The razor leaves Champ had been hurtling nearly flew over his head at the sudden fall, but Champ managed to hit him with several sharp leaves before Sergio returned to his feet and began avoiding them again.

Dawn craned her head and squinted to see why the graceful Floatzel had fallen all of a sudden, and saw in the place where he had tripped a small crater. One of the places Rodolfo had slammed his tail into to bring forth boulders. Sergio must have been thrown off-balance when he stepped on the edge of a hole instead of smooth ground.

"Water gun."

"Mega drain!"

"Brine, but don't let it hit the Torterra!"

Sergio spat forth water, and Champ barely met it with a mega drain bulb. Glowing, the green orb sucked some of the water up and sent the energy back to Champ.

Most of the water had been absorbed, but there was still enough of it that it could have fallen against Champ in a splash. At Wake's call, however, it hadn't reached Champ.

Said Torterra winced and spat, like he was offended by a bad taste in his mouth.

"Water gun, soak him through!"

"Razor leaf, don't let him do that!"

While Sergio shot bullets of compressed water towards Champ, who was trying his best to throw the sleek mammal off his feet, Dawn frowned. He hadn't wanted the first water-based attack hitting Champ, but was now trying to get him wet with water gun.

The only difference between them, she supposed, was the salinity. But why? It wasn't as if salt water would be good for Champ. He seemed to not like the fact that he had absorbed some of it, and she was pretty sure that watering plants with salt water wasn't a good course of action to take.

Wouldn't it be more effective to attack with brine rather than just water gun?

Despite his best efforts, Champ took more water than Sergio took leaves. He could shake it off relatively well, but his shell, already plenty heavy, was soaked with water, and some of the leaves on his tree were too wet to be used as razor leaves. She supposed that was one way to use water gun to soak him down, restricting him of his razor leaves.

Still, Champ had enough to work with if he needed to, as well as mega drain. That didn't seem like a very effective strategy.

"Go, Sergio!"

"Champ, hit the ground! You know what to do!"

Champ bellowed and let a handful of razor leaves fly out. The leaves scattered, shooting down and outwards, peppering the ground around him. There were too few to be an effective counter shield for long, but Sergio was charging.

The Floatzel braved through, though, even when a few green blurs shot towards him. He jumped onto Champ's back, and held on tight to the tree when the Torterra tried to shake him off.

"Champ!"

Champ bellowed again, and stomped his right leg as he shook himself to the best of his abilities. He even shot a few stray razor leaves down, but Sergio shifted so that some ended up hurting himself.

"Ice fang!"

Jaw crackling with cold blue energy, Sergio bit down on the back of Champ's neck, and Champ screamed.

Sergio didn't stop. Jaws still iced, he continued along, ignoring the mega drain bulbs and razor leaves Champ threw at him to the best of his abilities. He bit at Champ's legs, and then along his shell, crawling over his shell even when razor leaves fired at him randomly and mega drain bulbs were tossed onto him.

And where he bit, the area iced over, freezing solid.

Dawn finally understood why Crasher Wake had wanted Champ damp. Torterra already suffered a double weakness to ice-type attacks, but with the dirt shell being wet, the ice's coldness remained on him, hurting Champ in the bitten area even after Sergio moved on.

Sergio didn't look much better even as he turned Champ into a Torterra popsicle, bit by bit. Even while he was being iced, Champ was struggling, and those mega drain bulbs were doing their jobs. There weren't any more razor leaves to be tossed – not properly, anyways – but Champ was extending even the spikes on his back to stab at Sergio, their tips glowing in mega drain's green energy. He missed half the time, but the other half did some serious damage.

It looked like a Torterra's back wasn't an easy place as it seemed to attack from. Dawn made note of that so she wouldn't assume the same next time she battled Barry.

After the eighth bite with ice fang, however, Champ let out a weak cry and crumpled. Sergio hopped off of his back, nearly stumbled, but then righted himself and nodded in satisfaction.

Not good. Not good at all. Now all Barry had was a sleeping Allen to face Sergio. And no offense intended to her friend's Floatzel, but he was about to face a Floatzel that was a prime example of his species. The odds wouldn't have been particularly good even if he'd been in better health.

Barry didn't seem too concerned. He sent out Allen, who was, predictably, still asleep. The only good thing was that the confused state would have disappeared.

"Serg," Wake called, voice softened so as to not risk waking the foe Floatzel.

"Allen, wake up!" Barry shouted, having no such concern.

Allen stirred on the field where he was curled up, but his eyes didn't open.

"Crunch."

Leisurely, Sergio trotted up to Allen. This battle was in the bag for the gym leader's Floatzel. Last match, against a sleeping, weakened foe. It couldn't be easier.

"Allen! Come on, quick attack and get away!"

Miraculously, Allen's eyes opened. Snapping his jaws angrily at the approaching Floatzel, he scrambled away from Sergio, trying to run away or at the very least get some distance between the two of them.

"Serg, aqua jet."

"Allen, aqua jet away!"

"Pursuit, don't let him escape!"

"Quick attack, throw him off!"

Two orange furred Pokémon zigzagged around, one pursuing the other. Allen made good use of the few hardened mud rocks Rodolfo had left behind, using them to make some feints to throw off Sergio.

But Sergio was gaining, slowly. Dawn bit her lip, wondering what Barry was playing at. He was running away, but there was nothing that could help him with more time. Maybe if Sergio collapsed from exhaustion . . . .

As if her thoughts had been answered prayers, at that moment, Sergio stopped his pursuit of Allen, panting hard. He shuddered once, body wracking in what looked like pain, and then collapsed.

For a moment, Dawn didn't understand what had happened.

Barry punched the air. "Yeah!" he whooped, and on the field Allen was smiling smugly.

"What?" Dawn said, not understanding what had happened.

"Hm?" Crasher Wake raised his eyebrows, as if he was unsure of what had just occurred in front of him.

The referee, however, checked a tablet for a few moments before nodding. "Valid!" he shouted. "The match – and battle – goes to Barry's Floatzel! Barry Keizer wins!"

* * *

"Okay, what happened?" Dawn asked after Barry had handed his Pokémon over to the receptionist nurse.

Of course, she had waited until he had received his badge from Crasher Wake. Then, she had to wait some more because Barry decided to ask – once more – for the Pastoria Gym Leader to take him in as his apprentice, something Wake had rejected.

"Seems like you're fine on your own," he had said, rubbing Barry's hair roughly and making it even more mussed up than it had been.

Then, on the way to the center, she had tried to get it out of him, only for him to say – in a too-loud voice, as usual – that he had to get his Pokémon healed first before he could even think about answering any questions his fans may have had for him.

"Wait, let's just sit down."

So Dawn followed him to the waiting area, where she asked for the third time that day, "What happened?"

Barry cracked his knuckles smugly. "Well, I challenged my master, and proved myself a worthy discipline-"

"Disciple," Dawn corrected on habit, before she nudged his knee with her own. "Hey, you know what I mean."

He grinned widely. "Leech seed."

Suddenly everything clicked into place and made more sense, why Barry had insisted Allen run away instead of engaging. Time had been on his side all along. Allen was tired, but not tired enough to keep running instead of staying and fighting. All he had to do had been just wait his opponent out.

"Wait," she frowned. "But I didn't see any sprouts."

His grin widened. "Champ spread the leech seeds on the ground. They stuck to his feet and legs."

And with Sergio using aqua jet, the constant water flowing around him and Allen, the green flecks of energy wouldn't have been seen very well.

That was impressive. "Nice," she said, offering a hand.

He slapped it. "I know. But man, it was close. For a moment I thought I was going to have to wait for like two weeks before I could challenge him again.

"Why?" Dawn frowned.

Barry shrugged. "He's going somewhere, I think, so for a while they're not taking challengers."

Dawn froze. She had been planning on just calling and making an appointment in a few days, but this would keep her from challenging the gym for a while.

And if the gym leader was going to be gone for a while, there was going to be a lot of people who would have already made their appointments. She was going to have to wait forever for her battle.

Barry noticed. "You didn't make an appointment yet?" he said, sounding incredulous. And for good reason. Normally she was the one on top of things, who knew what was up and got prepared.

Dang, she was really slipping.

"Well," Dawn said. "At least we'll be prepared."

And then she sat back while Barry chewed her out for falling behind him.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Neptune (Prinplup), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Kirlia), Frejya (Lopunny), Medusa (Tangrowth)

_Home:_ Minerva (Noctowl), Selene (Ralts), Faith (Eevee)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), (Aipom, given to mom), (Cherubi, given to mom), Camarero (Rapidash),

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togepi), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: Apologies for the late update, it's been a busy month (and it's going to be even busier). I felt like I had to have at least one full gym battle for Barry, and thought, well, his 'master' is Wake, so that fits.

Valerie's Secret is like this verse's version of Victoria's Secret. I think I named Wake's mons after luchadors, but I don't remember.

Finally: Please remember Jagger the Salamence who doesn't really like Dawn, he's going to pop up again, and be important.


	24. Rising out of the Deep

A.S.107

October 1st

_Challenged Crasher Wake earlier than expected. _

* * *

_"Your Buneary evolved while touching your Tangela, who also happened to be evolving?"_

Dawn nodded. "Yes. Is that something that happens often? I have a Kirlia who wants to evolve into a Gallade, and I have a dawn stone, but Neptune – my Prinplup – wants to evolve as well, so maybe . . . ."

Professor Rowan looked thoughtful. _"It has been seen,"_ he said. "_But we're still researching that aspect of evolution. Because it doesn't consistently happen, it might just be a psychological trigger, or a coincidence. Also, Prinplup have slightly psychological triggers of their own required to evolve. Many times, they don't evolve unless they are able to come to some sort of acknowledgement with themselves. It may not work."_

Slightly discouraged, Dawn nodded.

Professor Rowan continued on. "_Still, it's a theory we're looking into, so there's no saying for sure whether it will or won't work. If we had more data on it, maybe we'd be able to shed some light on the idea. I don't suppose you were able to record the dual evolutions?"_

"I wasn't," Dawn admitted.

_"That's alright. I am glad that you told me about this, it could help add to data on that subject. Please send me the medical profiles of your Lopunny and Tangrowth, from before and after their evolutions. Do you know how to access them on your __Pokédex?"_

She did, courtesy of Lucas. "I do."

_"Good. I'll send you a questionnaire to fill in, but please also write a report on how you trained and raised your Pokémon up to their evolution."_

A report? Dawn suddenly felt nervous. "How detailed does it have to be?" she asked cautiously, not wanting to disappoint him with something so basic it couldn't be used for his research.

_"As detailed as you can make it," _he said. _"Average number of hours spent training per week, type of diet you put them on, and copies of their medical profile would be good. Make sure to describe the situation your Pokémon were in before they evolved as well. As detailed as possible would be good, like if they were battling, or if they engaged in unusual behaviour or such."_

That was straightforward and simple enough. Slightly relieved, Dawn nodded eagerly. "Yes, professor. Thank you!"

He didn't smile, but the lines around his eyes creased further_. "Do you have any more questions?"_

Dawn shook her head. "No more for now."

_"Alright. Good day, Dawn. Keep up the hard work."_

Barry, who had been watching from the side, exhaled when Dawn logged out of the video chat and turned the computer off. "He's still scary," he said.

"Really?" Dawn asked, surprised. He was less 'scary' now, and more of someone she definitely didn't want to disappoint or get on the wrong side of. Kind of like her mom. "How do you, you know, report to him or something?"

He shrugged as they stood up. "I don't call him," he said casually.

She flicked him on his temple with a finger, and he whined while clutching the spot in an overdramatic fashion. "That's rude," she told him.

"Oww," he whined. "Violence isn't the answer, Dawn! And anyways," he said, quickly changing the topic. "Aren't you going to show me your newly evolved Pokémon?"

After learning that he avoided talking to the professor simply because he was too scared to, Dawn was half-tempted to change her mind, just to drive him nuts. It would serve him right, for being ungrateful to the professor.

But then again, knowing how mouthy and cheeky Barry got when he was intimidated and nervous about someone, maybe it was for the better.

Outside, in a large park shaded by wide trees, Dawn let out all of her Pokémon. Frejya and Medusa, the recent stars, stretched out their newly-grown limbs and tested them out.

"Whoa," Barry said, staring at Medusa in awe. "She's huge!"

Medusa stared at Barry for a silent second, like she was contemplating eating him.

"He's a friend of mine," Dawn explained quickly before Medusa actually did that. "And he says stuff without thinking a lot, so don't feel offended," she added just in case her Tangrowth didn't like what he had said about her.

"And look at you!" Barry cried, already moving on to Frejya. The Lopunny, recognizing him, flicked an eyebrow in response, not changing her expression.

He laughed, not at all discouraged. "Still an ice queen, huh?"

Barry then stepped back, and took out his two remaining Poké balls. The other four were at the center, healing from their battle against the gym, but he still had Bruce and Billie Jean on him.

Billie Jean, upon being released, almost immediately wiggled over to Helios and began fawning over him, much to her Kirlia's embarassment and her Golbat's amusement.

Bruce, however, had changed a lot from the stoic Tyrogue she remembered vaguely. Nearly double his height before evolution, he lacked a neck on his body, and his limbs almost looked like slinky toys.

She knew better than to assume that, however. Those legs could stretch far, and still deliver powerful kicks.

"Hey, Bruce, remember Dawn?" Barry asked the Hitmonlee. When the fighting-type saw Dawn, he nodded slightly, before his sharp eyes wandered over to the rest of her team . . .

And stopped abruptly at the sight of Frejya, who had her long arms crossed in front of her chest like she was unimpressed with everything the world had to offer her.

When Bruce began shuffling towards Frejya, eyes practically boring holes into the Lopunny, Dawn pointedly turned to Helios and Neptune. If Bruce was going to try and flirt with Frejya, she wasn't interested in seeing that. Or Frejya turning him down.

"Hey, you two!" she said, overly loud. "Let's see if we can't evolve you two!"

Helios and Neptune both jumped up, interests immediately hooked.

Dawn told them about the possible theory of Pokémon evolving when touching other Pokémon who also evolved. "It might _not_ work," she said. "But I think it's a good bet, right?"

The two of them nodded, so she dug out food, as well as her last bottle of vitamins. "This should work for both of you," she said, eyeing the bottle critically. "Eat up."

After they had downed the vitamins and eaten some food, Dawn held out a hand to Helios. "Your ever stone," she reminded the Kirlia. He hurriedly pulled it out and returned it to her, practically vibrating with excitement. Neptune was the same, almost tapping his yellow feet in his impatience.

"Alright," she said, smiling. "Hey, can I record this?"

The two of them nodded, and her smile grew wider.

"Everyone," she called. "Helios and Neptune are evolving! Come quickly or you're going to miss it!"

* * *

When Dawn called, Frejya excused herself from the stuttering Hitmonlee and sat down in front of the two soon-to-evolve.

"You're taking the stone?" she quietly asked Helios.

"I am," he replied as Themis fluttered over and Medusa lumbered forwards. He was smiling widely, and in a way, Frejya was proud of him.

"Will you still be a pretty boy?" Themis asked, perching on Medusa's head. The Tangrowth scowled up at the poison and flying-type when she landed, but let her continue to sit.

He shrugged. Who knew what he would look like as a Gallade? Hopefully, masculine enough so that other male Kirlia would stop trying to flirt with him. That had been embarrassing when they looked closer and realized that he was male. As a Gallade that mistake wouldn't be made anymore.

"It's about time," Sekhmet told Neptune as she lumbered over, yawning widely and displaying her fangs to the whole world.

The Prinplup huffed as he stood next to the Kirlia, but didn't reply. He shifted his weight back and forth between his feet, clearly excited.

Dawn fussed around with her Pokédex, and then raised it. "Okay," she said, digging out the dawn stone she'd shown him before and handing it over. ". . . I have no idea how to use evolution stones. Are you supposed to just hold it?"

Helios took the stone hesitantly, and Neptune cautiously clapped his flipper on his back. The dawn stone, a clear aquamarine and sparkling like eyes, was cool to the touch.

It didn't, however, have a reaction like spontaneously bursting into bright light and it definitely didn't make him evolve into a Gallade.

"I probably should have thought about this sooner," Dawn muttered, and her Pokémon laughed at the anti-climatic problem. "I'll look it up. Just give me a second." She began twiddling with the Pokédex.

Despite himself, Helios laughed along with the others. Just when he was about to evolve, a small technicality was holding them back from doing so.

Smiling, he mentally probed at the stone. There wasn't life in it, per say, but it definitely did have an odd aura of a sort. A form of energy, contained within, which gave it a kind of power he had never sensed before.

There was something there, pulsing in the stone. He pushed at it with his mind, and felt an unspoken question asked. Something to do with irreversible change.

_Yes_, he answered it.

"I guess I'll have to take it back for now," Dawn was saying when the stone burst into light. "Holy-"

She cut herself off and fumbled with the camera function on the Pokédex while the stone reverted into a form it remembered from before, a kind of natural, ancient energy that merged with him. He felt himself grow and change, his body radically dissolving and reshaping into something altered, more advanced. It was different from the transition from a Ralts to a Kirlia. There was nothing that could reverse or stop this process.

Good thing he didn't want to.

When the light faded away, he looked down at himself. His legs were far thicker than they had been as a Kirlia, and his arms – also thick and strong – had blades.

He felt powerful. Very powerful, so much so that he felt as if he could destroy a mountain if he wanted to with this new body of his.

And he also happened to be taller than almost everybody. Including Dawn and Neptune.

Neptune, who was still a Prinplup and removing his flipper from his back.

Dawn closed her Pokédex and put it away. "Well, it was worth a try," she said in an appeasing tone to Neptune, whose mind felt closed off.

But despite the struggle Neptune had to keep his mind – and face – impassive, Helios could easily sense his emotions. The world, as perceived through his psychic senses, was clearer and sharper than ever. He saw further, sensed more. Bruce the Hitmonlee holding slightly jealous feelings towards him, Frejya being proud behind her reserved, stoic face, Themis and her amusement as well as a little envy, Sekhmet's worry for Neptune, Dawn's happiness tinged with concern . . . .

Neptune's hurt feelings and despair.

He sent an apologetic pulse to Neptune, before Dawn put a hand against his forehead. "How do you feel?" she asked him. He was slightly taller than her now, and the feeling of looking down instead of up at her was an odd sensation. "Any problems or pains?"

"Fine," he answered, releasing contentment and happiness to her so that she would understand even without direct words. There were so many things he owed her. She had caught both him and his sister and given them a home, and friends. She had helped him grow strong, and given him a purpose and a dream. She had let him achieve his former dream.

He didn't have the words to express his gratitude.

So he kneeled, falling onto his knees and bowing his head. If he let her feel the amount of gratefulness he felt, he was afraid he might end up hurting Dawn by overwhelming her mind and drowning her brain. He might not have been capable of it as a Kirlia, but in his newly evolved form he felt more powerful than ever, and he didn't know how much control he had over his newfound power.

This was the best way he had to show her, to thank her right now.

Dawn hugged him lightly, patting his back, and then began tugging him back up to his feet. Helios let her. It didn't matter that he couldn't communicate to her with eloquent words, or express his feelings fully by making a vow to always battle for her.

She understood.

Once he was on his feet, though, he swayed slightly, suddenly struck with dizziness. "Alright," Dawn said. "You're taking today easy. We'll start training you tomorrow."

Exhausted, he nodded.

* * *

Dawn's gym battle was booked for the tenth of October. Despite his promise to Johanna, there was no way that Barry was going to be cooped up in one spot for that long. He'd drive himself – and everyone else around him – insane if he did that.

"I'll just be training up north," he said. "In Solaceon and the area, since a tournament's going to be there pretty soon. I promise I'll get back in time to watch your gym battle."

"Promise?" Dawn held out her hand, pinky outstretched.

He pinky swore as hard as he could, and then for good measure spat in the palm of his right hand and held it out.

"No," Dawn said. "Wash your hand, Barry."

He laughed and wiped it off on his jeans, chuckling harder when she made a disgusted face. "Have fun training," he said before he sent out Starling, who had been taught fly with Dawn's HM. "Ready, Starling?"

His Staraptor cawed, so he climbed onto his back. "To Solaceon!" he announced dramatically.

On the ground, Dawn began to say something, but had to cover her face to protect herself from the powerful winds brought on by Starling's strong wings flapping.

"See ya!" he shouted as they were wrapped in a blue aura.

* * *

"That's a nice Porygon you have there," the nurse told him.

It was a lazy afternoon, and the Solaceon Town Pokémon Center had only two other trainers drifting around. Both were engrossed in the battle video being streamed from the Frontier, which left the nurse bored out of her mind and willing to strike up idle chatter with anyone willing.

"Thank you," he said as he received Alan from her.

She gave him a vague, plastic smile. "Are you thinking of evolving it? The Porygon line is all the rage now amongst trainers, I hear. But don't get into mischief with it."

Lucas shrugged. "We're taking it slow," he replied. "And we won't."

The receptionist nodded, her eyes drifting when an older male trainer walked in. "Ah," she said, sounding rather distracted now that some more interesting people to converse with was available. "Well, soon you'll be able to evolve it into Porygon-Z as well, I guess. Have a good day!"

"Thank you." But his obligatory gratitude fell on deaf ears as the receptionist began to welcome the new trainer with a very warm smile. Shrugging, Lucas left. He was ignored again. Okay.

Of course he thought about Alan's evolution. It was all anyone ever thought about when they saw him. Oh, a Porygon. Gonna evolve it? Because, you know, a new evolution's come out for that Pokémon. You do know, right? Well, I thought you didn't, because you hadn't evolved it and what trainer would do that?

Alan wasn't just an 'it'. To Lucas, he was a valuable companion and a friend. He hadn't thought of it before, but he was surprised to see just how many people didn't consider Porygon to be 'real' creatures simply because they were man-made.

Or, rather, not just because they were man-made, but because they had been programmed. The way people talked about them like they were new pieces of technology soon to be replaced by a new version made him bristle.

But other than his issues with the way Porygon were viewed, he was a bit tired of people reminding him that Alan could change. Professor Rowan had meant well, only mentioning that there was a new evolutionary tactic found for the man-made species (and of course Professor Rowan would know; he was the world's leading expert on evolution for a very good reason), but then his father had been pushing at him to get his hands on an upgrade and one of those Galactic discs –

Lucas took a deep breath.

A few days ago, his father had outright ordered him to evolve Alan into a Porygon-Z. He said it would be good for Professor Rowan's research, even if said man had never even said a word for or against the matter himself to Lucas. He said that Lucas should make himself useful and collect more data because didn't he understand that this was an amazing opportunity, to help write academic history?

A few days ago, Lucas had snapped and talked, no, _shouted_ back at his father for the first time in his life before hanging up on him and running out of the Pokémon Center's computer room, running back only to grab his trainer's license from where he had left it. He hadn't spoken to him since.

The thing was, Lucas didn't even remember what it had been exactly that he had shouted at his father. All he remembered was the frustration breaking forth like a dam crumbling and a wave of water washing out.

The spark that started it may have been Alan, but Lucas knew the truth. The problem – a pile of dried kindling just ready to burst into flames – had always been there, being built upon. When he thought about his father, all he could think about were little comments about how Lucas still had so far to go and improve in and long, stern talks in disapproving voices and angrily set faces about a mistake he had made.

There were good moments, he knew if he thought about it rationally, and it wasn't exactly as if his father was abusive. But it wasn't good, he knew, that when he thought of his father, he didn't necessarily think of a loving dad so much as a controlling jailor who killed him slowly through his expectations. The father part came much later on in his thoughts.

It was clear. He and his dad didn't have the best relationship.

Lucas felt his ears burn whenever he thought back to that moment of outburst – which was quite often, he admitted. He had been such a child, spitting out any word he could think of without actually thinking about them.

While at the time, he had felt good about spilling all the thoughts that had been in his head for as long as he could remember, he felt mortified that it had come out at all, and also absolutely terrified. He hadn't checked his email, or his Pokédex for calls, avoiding the issue in fear of being punished by his father.

He knew this fragile moment of avoiding the issue wasn't going to last, knew that the longer he put it off the worse it would become, but he didn't have the courage to break it himself before external forces did it for him. Let the punishment come to him, he thought.

"Hey, you!"

Lucas looked up –

And was hit with what felt like a blond and orange Tauros running into him.

"Ow!" Someone voiced what he felt. "Hey, careful, okay?"

"You," Lucas croaked out, "ran into _me_." His eyes were watering – hold it back, don't cry don't cry don't cry –

Ah, okay, that was better. He wasn't going to cry – that moment of weakness had passed.

"Yeah, well," the person said indignantly. Now that Lucas wasn't looking at the world through watering eyes anymore, he recognized Barry. "Not my fault."

". . . _You_ ran into _me_."

The blond boy shrugged. "So," he said casually. "How's your life been?"

Lucas thought for about three seconds before he cracked. "Terrible," he admitted.

"What?" Barry asked. Lucas looked at him, the boy that was the same age as him yet completely different from him. Barry was taller, a good trainer, approved of by Professor Rowan and his own dad. He had a good friend, he was determined and he was confident.

"Hey," Lucas said hesitantly. "You have a good relationship with your dad, right?"

"Huh?" Barry blinked at the sudden question. "Um, yeah. I mean, he's busy, so he can't come home often, but when he does it's really fun."

Fun. Lucas laughed a little, but even he didn't hear any real mirth in the sound.

"You okay, dude?"

"Not . . . not really." And then he began to talk.

Barry wasn't the best listener. He didn't mm-hm at the right places or give sorry looks or pats on the back. He whoa-ed and grunted in the middle of sentences, gave him raised eyebrows and even loudly shouted "no way" at one of the highlights.

Lucas wondered if talking to Dawn would have been better.

Still, he wasn't the worst. He didn't cut him off like Lucas had expected, and waited until he was done.

"Tell you what," Barry said when Lucas had finally finished despite all the interruptions. "Face your dad."

Hadn't this boy heard anything he had just said to him? Lucas had essentially poured out his problems, bared his soul to be seen in daylight. Didn't Barry understand that the so-called logical solution of 'facing his problems' couldn't work with someone so set on his ways like his father? ". . . What."

Barry misunderstood his what. "Face your dad," he repeated. "You're just running from him, see?"

"I am not," Lucas protested. "He'll kill me." And then he realized that what he said essentially did mean that he was running away from his dad. "I mean-"

But Barry shook his head. "No," he said. "You are. And I'm not a counsellor or a girl or anything -"

"What does being a girl have anything to do with this?" Lucas interrupted Barry, for a change.

Barry shrugged, seemingly not taking offense at the interruption. "They always have the answers," he said like it was common knowledge. "They always go" – and here his voice climbed dramatically in pitch – "'come on, talk it out, and everything will be alright', and then after hearing what you say they just tell you a super simple solution that shouldn't work but does anyways because apparently they're always right."

"That," Lucas deliberated. "Makes sense, I guess." It sounded about right.

"See?" Barry shrugged. "Wait, what was I saying?"

. . . was he comfortable taking advice from a guy who couldn't remember what topic he had been on a few seconds ago?

Well, beggars couldn't be choosers. "That you're not a counsellor or a girl."

"Oh yeah. Well, I'm not any of that, but you can't run from your problems. They're gonna catch up to you, and then it'll be even more trouble."

Those were surprisingly deep words from someone as distracted as Barry, especially considering how the blond boy spent most of his time running (at least he did around Lucas).

But he had a valid point. And who would know better about trying to outrun problems than a constant runner? "Maybe you have a point," Lucas admitted. He was tired of living in . . . not fear, but a sort of strain trying to please his father constantly. He wanted to _live_.

He probably would have never even thought these thoughts, let alone had the courage to think this had he not gone on this journey. Another thing to thank the professor for.

And someone else, too. "Thank you," he said to Barry. And then he added "dude" because he thought his statement may have been just a bit too girly.

Barry grinned and waved a hand. "S'nothing," he said. "That's what friends are for, dude, to talk with. We're friends, you know."

Lucas would have been touched by that, except Barry then proceeded to slap the back of his head with said waving hand. He hit hard enough to knock his red beret off his head.

"Ow!" Lucas protested, holding the offended spot.

"Friends do this!" the blond crowed, hopping away. "They knock sense into each other's heads!"

Feeling a bit sorry for Dawn – and also growing worried for her head as well – Lucas stooped to grab his hat off the ground and then ran after the fleeing, laughing boy, laughing just a bit himself.

And later, when he was in his room, he called his father on his Pokédex and had a long talk. He was scared, and he had to dial in the number several times, but he did call.

His father reacted like he had assumed, scolding him severely for not only lashing out like he had but also not calling for several days. "_What if you had gotten kidnapped, or killed?"_

Lucas bit his lips. In the harsh tones, there was worry and slight relief. His father did care.

Finally, his father finished chewing him out, and Lucas thought it wasn't as bad as he had feared. _"Why, Lucas," _he said, sounding tired instead of angry._ "Why did you say all of those things?"_

He was half-tempted to squeak out an apology and bury the whole thing. He feared the idea of spilling his guts – his feelings – to his father in fear that they would be ignored or crushed. Much like how in their family, they didn't pretend for long that the spirits of Shaymin's messengers didn't come by at the eve of Gratitude Day during Yule time, his father didn't like frivolous things.

But that would only build up a new pile of kindling for the next spark to set off. And the cycle would repeat.

Lucas told himself he could be brave, and envisioned Barry squaring his shoulders. "Dad, sometimes, I feel like anything I do just disappoints you," he began.

It wasn't a passionate speech, and he stuttered a lot during it, occasionally sniffling as tears spilled down his face and thickened his voice with snot. But Lucas was surprised to find that his father listened carefully, just as his father had been surprised to find that Lucas had been suffering.

It took effort, but he laid out the problems he felt he had, and the frustrations he felt, and it felt good when he was done. They ended up talking for hours, far longer than they ever had held a conversation before, and a few times he nearly gave up and hung up, but it had been worth it in the end. His father hadn't known what Lucas had felt sometimes, and was both surprised and disappointed that he had never been told.

Except the disappointment hadn't been aimed at Lucas, but himself. He apologized for not being a better father, and promised he would try better.

_"I suppose it's because of all the expectations your grandmother had for me," _he said wryly.

Lucas wiped the last of his tears away from his face. "Huh?" He didn't know much about Grandmother Yew, other than that she had died of cancer before Lucas had been born.

_"She always compared me to my older brother,"_ his dad explained. _"And never was happy at what I managed to do. I suppose I just wanted you to be so good that no one would ever be able to put you down, but I turned into her in the process, didn't I? I'm sorry, Lucas. I shouldn't have done that to you."_

"It's alright," he said, voice hoarse. His throat throbbed in pain from talking for so long, but that didn't stop the smile spread widely over his face.

His dad asked Lucas to talk to him more often, and then bid him goodnight with a gentle voice.

Lucas went to bed smiling with his heart lighter than it had been for a long time.

* * *

Three days after he learned how to use the energy from magical leaf in blade form, Helios was sparring with Neptune. "Metal claw," Dawn said. "Swords dance."

Neptune swung forth, but Helios managed to block with smooth motions while pumping up his strength.

"Bubble beam, leaf blade to cut through."

Arm blades glowing bright green, Helios lunged forth and began cutting furiously, while Neptune unleashed a volley of bubbles. By the time both were done, the ground was wet, but not a single bubble was to be seen.

"Pluck, Neptune! Helios, block with swords dance!"

Neptune dove forwards, beak glowing, but Helios smashed one arm blade by the flat side into his chest before swinging his other arm horizontally into the side of Neptune's head. While the Prinplup was dazed, he punched Neptune's stomach with a rock smash and smoothly knocked him down onto the muddy ground.

Clapping sounds came from behind them. "Nicely done!"

Dawn turned around to see Crasher Wake, of all people, standing with a Floatzel next to him.

Shaking away the hand Helios offered, Neptune got back up from the ground and wiped his face of the mud.

"Leader Wake," Dawn said, taking a respectful tone. "Thank you. I didn't know you were watching." Then she frowned. "I thought you were out of town . . . ?"

The water-type gym leader approached, Sergio at his side eyeing everyone carefully.

"Ah, I happened to be dropping by," he said casually. "Business finished earlier than I expected, so I wanted to come back home. So, Dawn, is it?"

She started in surprise. "You know my name?" How?!

He grinned widely. "Palmer likes to talk about you and his son." His face suddenly fell in exasperation. "Almost too much. The amount of pictures he has of you two in his wallet is worrying."

Dawn giggled, even if she was embarrassed. "Did he tell weird stories about us?" she dared to ask. If Palmer had told Crasher Wake about the time she and Barry had run around the neighborhood dressed in their parents' clothes pretending to be Pokémon in an epic battle, she didn't think she'd be able to face him properly in a challenge out of sheer mortification.

"No," he said, much to her immense relief. "He did say that you two could give me a run for my money, though . . . care to put his words to the test?"

She nodded. "I have an appointment for a challenge at your gym in-" she began, but he cut her off.

"Eh, I'm here now, and there's only one other challenger I picked up at random from around here going through my gym trainers right now for his seventh badge. Think you can wait a little bit and just challenge me today?"

When her surprise kept her from answering immediately, he smirked. "Unless you don't feel ready to challenge my gym."

At his side, the Floatzel donned an identical smirk and crossed its front limbs in front of its chest arrogantly.

Dawn narrowed her eyes. "We're ready now, sir!" she said, straightening her back in an attempt to look taller than her pitiful height.

"Good!" He clapped one of his large hands onto her shoulder, and her knees nearly buckled. He really was Palmer's friend. "I'll see you soon! Heal up your Pokémon and come in twenty minutes to begin your challenge!"

She nodded, and then spun around once he and Sergio were gone from sight. "Change of plan," she told Neptune and Helios.

* * *

The receptionist told her that a quick healing of her Pokémon would take around ten minutes – which meant that she had seven minutes to run to the Pastoria Gym. She could probably make that.

But the wait itself was almost agonizing. After sending a message to Barry telling him to hurry back to Pastoria if he wanted to see her gym battle, she picked up a worn magazine from the supply the center had in its waiting room, but her mind couldn't quite retain the words she skimmed through.

After eleven minutes passed since handing her Pokémon over to the nurse, Dawn was called. She shot out of her seat, practically snatched her Pokémon out of the nurse's hand, and shouted a hasty 'thank you' over her shoulder as she bolted out of the center. The air was cool, a welcome feeling to her fever-hot face as she ran straight to the gym, not caring how stupid she must have looked to anyone who noticed her.

The man manning the counter was a different one from Barry's challenge. "We're closed today," he informed her.

Her heart sank. "The – the gym leader," she wheezed. "He invited me . . . ."

"Name?"

"Dawn Steele," she huffed out, still out of breath. She had three minutes to spare, so technically, she could have come a little slower, but if this guy held her up any longer, all her spare time would be gone and her efforts would have been in vain, and she wouldn't be able to challenge Crasher Wake today.

Or so it felt, anyways.

Luckily, the receptionist didn't hold her back any longer. "Alright," he said, shuffling some papers in front of him. "Sign this waver that says any injuries met at the gym to either you or your Pokémon are not the fault of the gym, and then you're good to go."

Normally, she would have tried to read the whole waiver, but she figured it was just standard stuff. She skimmed it – she wouldn't sue Pastoria Gym or Crasher Wake in the case of injuries, blah blah blah – and then hastily signed it with the pen the man gave her.

He took the sheet from her when she was done. "Go down the hallway with the lights on to your left. You'll be in the special obstacles course arena the gym leader's been working on."

It wasn't until she was walking down the hallway till Dawn realized what the receptionist had told her. Special obstacles course?

That . . . didn't sound good.

A bit nervous now, Dawn continued to make her way down until she reached a door where a paper sign was taped on proclaiming it 'the challenge course'.

Alright, then.

She pushed it open, and was met with a large tiled room filled with water.

At first glance, it looked like an indoor pool, albeit an oddly shaped on. There were paths made like mazes throughout the whole thing, and even a few stairs leading up and down, as well as what looked like floating platforms.

She saw people as well, tubers and fishermen and sailors standing around.

"What is this?" she muttered, reaching for one of her Poké balls. Helios appeared in a flash of light, and even her Gallade blinked in surprise at the sight.

"This is the obstacles course Wake has been working on," said a cheerful voice. Dawn turned around to see a guy chilling on a beach chair, a tablet on his lap.

"Okay?" Dawn said, eyeing the pool. "What . . . am I supposed to do?"

He pulled himself up so that he was sitting, not lounging, and turned the tablet's screen dark. "It's simple," he said. "Make your way through the maze, battle the trainers that you run into, and when the water levels start rising or falling, adapt to your situation!"

"When the water levels start rising?" she repeated, a little dumbfounded. Was she supposed to . . . swim through this place?!

"Yup. If you get stranded and the water rises on you, you're disqualified." He sounded way too happy about that. "Don't worry, a lot of the people here are certified lifeguards, and they'll fish you out if you're in trouble. Also, you'll be able to control some water levels yourself, what with the levers on the ground for the puzzle and all."

Drowning was the least of her concerns. She knew how to swim, it was just suddenly being tossed into water without any preparation – or a swimsuit, for that matter – that she had a major problem with.

"Oh, and when you battle, you don't necessarily have to knock out your opponent – you just have to force it out of the ring."

"What ring?!"

Never mind the 'suddenly being tossed into a weird situation when expecting a normal gym battle', the biggest problem she had right now was this guy's horrible explanations.

"Your challenge," he continued on like he hadn't just given her the worst explanation ever regarding her unorthodox challenge. "Starts . . . now!"

He started a timer at his side she hadn't noticed, giving her nearly thirty minutes to get through this pool maze before she could actually battle the gym leader.

Well, she was supposed to be good at thinking outside the box, right? And weird as this . . . whole thing was, she couldn't deny that it was a good way to test that.

"I don't want to ruin the surprise," she muttered as she and Helios fast-walked towards the first pathway. She was supposed to go down a flight of stairs, and at any given time there might be water pouring down . . .

"No teleporting, surfing or flying!" the man called from behind. Well, she hadn't actually thought about those alternatives till he mentioned them, but she guessed that it was out of her options now.

"But I think you'll be my best bet," Dawn continued on as they walked down the stairs.

Helios nodded, eyes narrowed with determination, and unsheathed his blades. When they sprang out, they made a sharp sound like a sword being unsheathed from its scabbard by a master swordsman.

Despite walking through a maze that would potentially be spitting out water at her, Dawn smiled. "Let's do this."

The first trainer was a boy around her age, who, unlike her, was dressed in proper swimming apparel. "How do you prevent yourself from getting electrocuted?" she asked, even as she gestured for Helios to go forth. "Wouldn't challengers bring a lot of electric-type Pokémon?"

He tapped the ground with his foot. "I'm standing on a rubber mat," he said as he sent out a Bibarel to join her Gallade in the ring. Their 'arena' didn't even have any force fields to protect them, and it was about as big as a small room.

A mat still wouldn't have reassured her of any accidents, especially if someone brought a Pokémon like Sekhmet into the challenge, but he seemed fairly confident enough. "So, I just have to knock your Bibarel out?" she asked for confirmation.

"Mmhm," he said. "Brie, yawn!"

"Helios, dodge, swords dance and engage!"

Helios barely managed to dodge the large bubble that came towards his way, although he nearly fell out of the ring in his efforts to do so.

But he had dodged, and that was what mattered. In a challenge where being knocked out of the ring was the end, if Helios fell asleep that would be that.

"Yawn, bigger!"

"Helios, swords dance till it gets close!"

Her Gallade stayed in place, but began to dance in a fierce, frenetic fashion. His blades extended and retracted rapidly while the bubble, large enough to crowd him into the corner, drifted closer.

"Brie, don't let it get you, take a firm stance like Crasher Wake showed us."

The Bibarel widened the distance between its feet and bend slightly. So the challenge was beneficial for the gym trainers, who would most likely have more experience with wrestling.

"Teleport, Helios."

Right before the bubble could pop on his dancing figure, Helios moved out of range, and reappeared behind the bubble.

"Water gun!"

Still in its firm stance, the Bibarel opened its mouth and spat forth a volley of water.

"Dodge!"

Helios rolled off to the side, and then had to duck to avoid another water gun that would have hit him on his head.

"Don't let it get close to you! Water gun!"

"Cut through them with psycho cut!"

The sound of her Gallade's place sliding out rang loudly, and he began to slash forth with his arm blades glowing blue. Each lunge and swipe released a psychic burst of energy shaped as a physical blade. When the boosted psychic blades hit the water, they cut through easily and neutralized their threat.

The Bibarel was at the disadvantage here. The water-type had to take a breath while releasing water guns eventually, and when he did, the psycho cuts barraged it without any mercy.

"Defense curl!"

It hastily tucked its more vulnerable underbelly and neck so that they were better protected.

"Rock smash!"

Helios teleported once more – this time to behind the Bibarel – and then lashed out with a powerful fist. Hit in the back of its head, the Bibarel swayed woozily.

Not one to take chances, Helios seized the large rodent and pushed it out of the ring's boundaries.

"Great job!" Dawn cheered, before she looked at the other trainer. "Er, we won, right?"

The boy nodded and returned his Pokémon. "But the water level's rising," he pointed out.

Dawn looked down, and saw that he was right. The water was slowly rising, up to the second 'floor' of the obstacle.

Not good. The only way across to the next person she could see without breaking any rules was through the first floor, which was already submerged. "What do I do now?" she asked.

He didn't hold back information out of resentment, thankfully. "You see those buttons around?" he asked, pointing.

She followed the direction he was pointing at with her eyes until she saw two large buttons, yellow and green, on the ground of the second level. "Yeah," she said.

"One of those will lower the water," he said.

But there were two. And, if she looked across to the other parts of the maze, she saw a blue button. "Only one?"

He shrugged, and Dawn guessed that this was the end of his hints. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Good luck."

She'd need it.

While the water slowly rose to the second level, she hurried down the stairs, Helios right behind her. Then, she stopped in front of the buttons. "One to drain, one to probably raise. Which one do you think it is?" she asked.

Helios shrugged apologetically, and looked elsewhere.

"Huh," Dawn sighed. "I really don't want to get drenched, but . . . better take a risk."

She began reaching for the green button when her Gallade abruptly stepped forth and stomped his foot on the yellow button.

"Helios?" she asked, before with a loud sucking sound, the water began draining out of the pool. It was almost like a sea monster was drinking away the water, and soon, the first level's floor was wet, but not submerged in water.

"Nice," she said as they hurried down the stairs so they could get across before the water began filling again. "How'd you know that?"

He looked towards the direction of the boy they had just battled, and then sent a feeling of smugness.

Dawn frowned as they came to a flight of stairs. "Did you read his mind?" she asked, lowering her voice. That was illegal, and she didn't want to lose Helios or get him into trouble because of a gym challenge obstacle course.

Helios shook his head, and sent her an image of the boy's face, smug.

"You saw him looking like that when I was about to press the green button," she guessed, and this time was rewarded with a nod. "Thanks, Helios."

The Gallade bowed his head.

They continued through, and climbed up and down a few flight of stairs before they reached the top once more, having to drain the water whenever it got a little too close for comfort, and sometimes even having to raise the water level so they could get to isolated 'islands' by crossing the floating devices.

She and Helios hopped onto the third floor, a step above the slowly rising water.

"Is it okay to be using that much water just for an obstacle course?" Dawn asked as she watched the pool fill up once more, this time to the top. To make sure that the water wouldn't rise to disqualify her while she battled, she pressed the button that would empty the pool and watched the water drain away.

The sailor shrugged. "Wake's Pokémon are the ones filling and draining it," he said as he sent out a Wingull. "It's good training for them, to release a large amount of water and absorb it back at once. Helps them over their control and speed for mass attacks."

The bird took to the air with a loud challenging caw, and Dawn eyed it. Had this been a normal challenge, she would have just sent out Sekhmet and easily knocked it out with electric-type attacks, but because of the weird rules stating that she couldn't have her Pokémon step out of the 'ring' – a circle drawn on the ground with no force field or anything to protect trainers and bystanders – her best choice was to send out her own flier.

This whole obstacle course thing didn't seem like a very smart thing to do in a regulated, League-sanctioned gym. For one, it wasn't safe. For another, it was just weird.

"What happens if they leave the circle?" she asked, nodding to Themis and the Wingull, who were sizing each other up in the air. Well, the Wingull was. Themis was just discreetly getting a head start.

"As long as they don't land outside the ring, they're good," replied the sailor, before he looked up in alarm as the Wingull suddenly stumbled midair, led into confusion by the subtle flashing light Themis had been shining onto it.

"Oh, alright," Dawn said cheerfully as the bird plummeted. "Themis, air cutter."

In its confused state, the blades of air forced the Wingull to not only be pushed backwards, but also crash down onto the ground.

"Smart," the sailor said gruffly as he returned his Pokémon. "A bit dirty, but smart. Shame it won't work against _this_ guy!"

"Themis, fly up!" Dawn shouted as a Pelipper, upon materializing out of its ball, opened its large beak.

Her Golbat, engulfed in blue aura, shot up just in time to avoid being struck by a blast of water, and then came rocketing down towards the Pelipper.

"Quick attack left!"

The bird, faster than she would have thought possible for its bulky shape, rolled out of the way.

"Themis, don't touch the ground!"

Her Golbat barely managed to pull up in time, only to be hit from behind by a water gun that knocked her onto the tiled floor outside of the ring.

Dawn sighed. Well, technically, she had deserved that. "Thanks, Themis, good job. Return."

No flier for the rest of this match, and she had to take this Pelipper out, either knocking it unconscious or out of the ring and onto the ground.

She sent out Helios. Leaf blade wouldn't do much against the flying-type, but maybe . . . .

"Water gun!"

"Swords dance, cut it away!"

The Pelipper spat out a shot of water, but Helios swung his arms in front of him, blocking the majority of the water gun while still buffing himself up.

"Quick attack and then wing attack!"

"Move, and then psycho cut!"

Helios tried to get out of the way, but the large bird put on a burst of speed, and rammed its huge beak straight into his chest. While he winced, the bird thrashed with its wings, slapping at his face with powerful muscles.

Forced to teleport, he popped onto the edge of the ring behind the Pelipper, and then swung his arm blades, lined with psychic edges. They flew off, and then cut into the bird's back like physical swords.

Screeching in fury, the bird lunged at Helios, who dropped to the floor at the last minute. The momentum behind the Pelipper's lunge meant that the bird flew straight on past him and out of the ring's range.

Still on the ground, Helios swung his blades to let loose one last psycho cut that struck the Pelipper.

Unfortunately, despite her Gallade's ingenious plan of manipulating the foe Pokémon, it didn't knock out the Pelipper. Still angry, but more controlled now, the Pelipper flew back into the ring's range and began circling above like a bird of prey, looking with sharp eyes for any weak spots it could exploit.

Dawn glanced at Helios, who met her eyes. "Psycho cut."

To the bird's credit, it flew well despite its size, and retaliated with water guns that Helios had difficulty avoiding, but Helios had stronger attacks, boosted by swords dance. A lucky shot knocked its wing out of commission, and dropped it to the ground. Helios ran up close, and ignoring the water gun and wing attack from the good wing, shoved the bird out of the ring.

"Alright," the sailor said after he returned his Pelipper. "You win. You can challenge Wake after he's done his current trainer."

Dawn whooped, and Helios punched the air before he ran back up to her. Dawn didn't bother telling him to slow down, figuring that he had good cause to be excited.

She would regret that decision. As Helios came running, he slipped on the wet tiles. The cheers died on everyone's lips as Helios slipped, ankle nearly folding –

And then fell off the edge of the pool into the emptied bottom of the second floor. There was a distinctly hard sound, followed by a duller but still alarming thump.

Like, say, if a head had hit the tiled bottom – and hopefully not burst – before the rest of the body also landed.

"Oh Mespirit!"

"Azelf's tails!"

She and the sailor both scrambled to the edge of the drained pool and looked down, Dawn reaching for both her Gallade's ball, and also any medication that might be helpful.

At the edge of the second floor, Helios, flat on his back, groaned and waved a hand to show that he was alright. When he tried to get to his feet, however, he winced and grabbed at his ankle, and his eyes were too dazed for her liking.

"Hold on," Dawn called, and returned him to his Poké ball. He didn't have any critical injuries the ball could detect, but still, it could have been serious.

No wonder they asked for trainers to sign waivers.

The gym trainer she had last faced, a sailor in his late forties, sighed like a father frustrated at his careless son. "I told Wake that this would happen," he muttered, tugging at his whiskers in an irritated manner. "But no, it's all about the aquatic environment. Nothing aquatic in the real sense about a pool, I said, but did he listen? No. Just went on and on about how it's going to be fun for the kids. Like that's the main function of a gym. Bah."

When he was done with his muttering rant, he glanced towards the screens near the ceilings that showed Wake's battles. "Kid, he's still battling the challenger before you. Go and quickly drop off your Gallade at the center and come back. You have other Pokémon you can use, right?"

Dawn looked down at the ball, and then at her other Pokémon. Medusa and Sekhmet could probably handle anything Crasher Wake threw at them, even without Helios and his leaf blade, but if there was someone who could fight on equal terms . . . .

She needed to play the terrain to her advantage, not just types. She needed her own water-type.

"Yeah," she said, hand going to her Prinplup's ball. "I do."

* * *

Barry's shouting was so loud that when the Pokédex dinged with a newly arrived message, Lucas very nearly missed hearing the sound.

"Hey," he called, catching the enthusiastic blond boy's attention while he coached his Pokémon in increasing their speed. They were staying together for a while, Lucas participating with Barry's training to give him a buddy to work with. Barry had more Pokémon he could work with, and Lucas and his Pokémon learned more about training.

It was a win-win situation for both of them, and they were doing pretty well.

Right now, Lucas was taking a break. He and his Pokémon couldn't keep up with all of Barry's training, so they participated in half of them.

"You got a new message."

"Take five, guys!" Barry shouted, and then jogged over. "A message, huh?"

He flipped open his dex and read the message for a while before snapping it shut. "Change of plans!" he bellowed, and the sudden noise made Lucas flinch in pain. His eardrums wouldn't recover for a while now. "We're going to Pastoria!"

"Now?" Lucas asked.

"Now." Barry returned all of his Pokémon except for Starling, his Staraptor. "Dawn's having her gym battle and I promised I'd be there for her."

"Now?!"

"It's all good. Starling knows fly." As if something had just occurred to him, Barry looked his way. "Can your Togetic fly? Use fly?"

Cupid could fly, but he didn't know the HM move fly, if that was what he meant.

Barry looked at his Staraptor. "Can you carry both of us?" he asked the predator, who nodded haughtily.

Lucas grimaced at the thought of flying. That sounded scary enough on its own, but being flown by a bird that was also carrying another person? "I can just walk," he offered. "You could go ahead."

"No way. 'Sides, don't you want to cheer Dawn on?" Barry began stuffing his Poké balls into his backpack and zipping it shut as tightly as he could.

"I'd probably slow you down," Lucas tried.

Starling made a strange crooning sound of some sort that didn't sound particularly affectionate. In fact, it sounded more like an offended growl, if birds could growl.

"Then you haven't seen Starling in action," Barry said, smirking proudly. "C'mon, be brave."

Lucas sighed, but tucked the ends of his scarf down his jacket so it wouldn't catch on anything and break his neck. He'd faced his dad. He supposed that there was nothing he really couldn't do, in the sense of being brave. "Do we climb on his back, or . . . ."

Starling buffeted the ground with his powerful wings, and Lucas had to blink a few times when dust flew into his eyes. The bird, now hovering in the air, wiggled his feet.

His feet, the ones with toes edged with knife-like talons. And he wasn't exaggerating about the talons being like knives. Each one looked sharp enough to kill a person with.

Barry, though, reached up and grabbed one leg around the 'ankle'. "Ready?" he asked.

Despite every part of his brain yelling at him not to, Lucas jumped up – Barry was taller than he was, and could reach further without having to hop – and held onto Starling. He nearly gave up on the entire thing when the bird, despite his powerful wings, was tugged down towards the ground at his sudden weight.

"Fly!"

A blue aura enveloped him, decreasing the weight of his body pulling on his arm, and then they were going up. The sensation almost felt like they were in an elevator, being lifted far, far above the earth, defying gravity. He felt wind brushing, and the outside world was almost nothing but a blur.

"To Pastoria!" Barry whooped, and Lucas just held on as tightly as he could while praying that they would reach the city in the south without any incidents, aware that all that prevented him from falling to the ground was the Staraptor and his hand's grip.

* * *

She got back from her run to the Pokémon center, and saw Sergio on the screen taking down her opponent's Raichu with a swift-sonic boom combination. Judging from the way it kept replaying, Dawn guessed that the actual battle had ended.

"He's healing his Pokémon," the sailor told her as she hurried through the maze again, this time not having to battle the trainers. "You ready?"

"Nearly."

Dawn let Neptune out, who eyed the pool maze with confusion. "Helios can't battle the gym leader," she told him. "So you're going to be taking his place. Is that alright?"

He looked slightly doubtful, but nodded. Dawn grinned. "Thanks, Neptune. You'll be great."

"It's time," the sailor told her.

"Right." She returned Neptune, and took a deep breath. Barry still wasn't here – given how she had asked him to come back on such short notice, it was possible that he wouldn't make it. A part of her was disappointed for that, but he would understand.

"Ah, you made it." Crasher Wake came out of a room in the back, wiping his face and neck with a towel that he carelessly slung onto a nearby bleacher when he was finished with it. "How did you like the layout of the maze?"

"I didn't like it," Dawn said bluntly. She might have been more polite had Helios not fallen and been forced to rest from the challenge. That was unfair to her Gallade, who had worked so hard for this, and fought through most of the challengers in the obstacle itself.

And she couldn't even blame them for it, technically, since she had signed that stupid waiver.

"It needs a lot of safety measures in place," she added, softening up her voice. "A lot more."

He nodded. "Anything else?"

She opened her mouth to complain, but then rethought her decision. Other than the lack of devices to keep trainers safe, she really couldn't think of anything else.

Oh, wait, she could. "And someone to better explain the challenge."

He laughed heartily. "Wasn't a fan of Erick's explanations?"

She shook her head, and he laughed even more. "Thanks for being honest," he said when he was done chortling. "I wanted to see what challengers thought about this. Most were too polite to really tell me what they thought. Glad someone's giving me constructive criticism.

"But you're not here to help me redecorate my gym," he said. "You're here to challenge me for the Fen Badge."

Dawn nodded, recognizing that he was getting ready to battle her.

The gym leader waved the referee, who had been sitting on the bleachers discussing something with another trainer, forwards. "So let's see if Palmer's evaluation of you was accurate."

He retreated to his end of the arena, and she hurried to her own side while looking at the field. There was less swamp and bog than Barry's challenge, with more water. More than half of the field was water. Parts of it merged gradually with the water, like a beach or a riverbank, but other parts looked steep, like the edge of a manmade pool that dropped right from level ground to deep water.

Grinning through his wrestler's mask, Crasher Wake took a safari ball from the pedestal at his side and threw it into the pool that made up half of the arena. "Alejandro!"

The Gyarados appeared in a flash of light, and his roars drowned out the splashes he made as his stomach hit the surface of the pool's water. "Alejandro!"

Even when she had seen this Pokémon before and faced other Gyarados, that didn't take away the fear that came when she was about to send one of her own Pokémon against him in battle. The sight of the Pokémon, as well as the intimidation practically dripping off of its scales like water droplets made Dawn shake a bit in her boots and her stomach clench in nervousness, but it wasn't going to be enough to stop her. Sure, Alejandro was big, scary and strong . . . but Sekhmet had taken down a lot of Gyarados while training before, and they had figured out one pattern with these dragons.

"Sekhmet!"

Both terrifying Pokémon snarled at the other, each trying to intimidate the other while not showing their own fear.

"Begin!" the referee cried.

For a few seconds, the Gyarados and the Luxray on the field eyed each other. Alejandro recognized that this predator, while being smaller than him, was still a major threat to him. His natural instincts and experiences told him to proceed with extreme caution, even more so because he recognized that Sekhmet was a strong Luxray, full with youth and power.

Likewise, Sekhmet eyed the Gyarados with caution. He was bigger than any Gyarados she had faced before, and more experienced. No doubt she wouldn't have it easy in this fight.

"Charge, Sekhmet!" Best to make sure that their attacks were the strongest they would be, especially since Alejandro's intimidate would have lowered Sekhmet's attack.

"Aqua tail, ground ward!"

Alejandro lifted his huge tail, wrapped in ribbons of water, and then slammed it into the 'bank' of the pool of water he was in. The result was something similar to a massive mud slap, a wave of muddy water spattering Sekhmet. She yowled in outrage when it covered her coat, and skipped backwards so she could shake it off.

"Twister!"

The rushing dragon attack came towards them, winds laced with dragon energy whipping around furiously.

"Charge-spark, defensive!"

Sekhmet barely got her fur charged again and covered her body in a spark before the twister hit. She screeched in anger, but bound out of the winds encircling her with only slight damage.

"Dragon rage!"

"Dodge!"

Sekhmet crouched and leapt to the side when the orb of draconic energy was hurled at her. She hissed, while Alejandro retreated to the back of the pool, as far away from the bank as he could get.

"Charge, then spark the water."

Sekhmet roared at the Gyarados, angry that her foe wouldn't face her properly, but then covered herself in electricity and waded in. Across the pool, Alejandro didn't seem all that affected.

Crasher Wake didn't seem worried, either. "Twister, into the water!"

This time, the winds were boosted not just by dragon fire, but also by water. It was like a storm pillar coming to Sekhmet's way.

"Out of the water!" Dawn didn't like having to back down, but the only alternative she saw was to have Sekhmet charge through that pillar, and the twister was a lot stronger with water added to it.

Sekhmet scampered out, avoiding being swept up by the twister. Luckily for them, it didn't join the Luxray on the ground, instead dispersing when the miniature storm reached the end of the water.

Droplets splattered everywhere in the arena, and Sekhmet shook herself out, growling at the Gyarados. She snarled, trying to get him to face her properly, but the Gyarados scoffed and slapped the surface of the pool with his tail instead, as if her insults were like a child's frustrated attempts.

She bared her teeth and snarled louder at him.

"Sekhmet," Dawn said. "Leer."

Leer had been unsettling when she'd been a Shinx, and even more so when she had been a Luxio. As a Luxray with eyes gleaming gold that could see through walls, it was terrifying. Even Alejandro squirmed when Sekhmet leered, though he retaliated by hitting her with a dragon rage.

Dawn wanted to chew her thumbnail into a stub in her frustration. Sekhmet had no long-ranged moves she could use, while Alejandro did.

She was about to cry that it wasn't fair when she noticed Crasher Wake studying her. Right. This was a challenge. She was being challenged – and tested.

Dawn took a deep breath. She didn't like this, but . . .

"Sekhmet, swim!"

There were many reasons why she didn't like telling her Luxray to swim towards the Gyarados. For one, she was swimming towards a Gyarados. In its natural element and environment. That alone was a horrible choice.

Another reason why she didn't like it was because Luxray hunted not in water or in the sky, but on the ground. They could swim, Sekhmet had done so a few times while training near water, but she preferred remaining dry. It wasn't her environment to flourish in.

Finally, she had no idea what the water would be like. It was murky, with swamp flora and dirt making it hard to see just what the bottom looked like, or how far it was.

"Sekhmet, check the water with your eyes, and be careful!"

Her Luxray's eyes glowed gold. Even if she could know what was under the water, though, that didn't mean swimming through the pool would be easy. Just less frustrating.

Altogether, not ideal. But it was the only way.

Sekhmet swam valiantly towards the large Gyarados, paddling to keep her head above the water. Just in case she drowned, Dawn kept a sharp eye on her, Poké ball ready to recall her at the slightest signs of trouble. She had an idea as to how she could neutralize Wake's tactic of hiding in the water, but Sekhmet was, type wise, her best bet against Alejandro.

Wake wasn't going to wait for Sekhmet to come to attack, though. "Meet her halfway, waterfall!"

Alejandro lunged, and there was nowhere to dodge. Tightening her grip around Sekhmet's Poké ball, Dawn shouted her order. "Spark!"

Sekhmet took a deep breath and released as much electricity as she could. She couldn't exactly run forth to build momentum behind the spark attack like she usually did, not while she was in the water, but electricity carried in water. She released as strong as a current as she could make it, and paddled forwards to meet the charging Gyarados headfirst.

They clashed, and water and electricity flew everywhere. Sekhmet thrashed, and bit onto Alejandro's neck scales while clawing with spark-tipped claws. Alejandro tried to fling her off, but she held on tenaciously, increasing the electricity on her body.

Dawn let out a gasp of horror when Alejandro launched himself out of the water and sailed over the pool to land on the ground. Sekhmet was slightly jarred at the impact from landing, and then forced to release the Gyarados entirely when he slammed her head against the ground.

Huffing, Alejandro began charging up a twister when Sekhmet got to her feet, snarling.

"Spark!"

She ran right through the twister, and then jumped to hit Alejandro in his intimidating face. She clawed and bit at his large, sail-like gill, making him bellow in pain. One last time, she released a burst of electricity while wrestling with his head and clawing at every part of him he could reach until he fell over.

"Gyarados is unable to battle!"

Sekhmet clambered off of Alejandro, breathing fast.

Dawn blinked. That . . . had been faster than she had expected. "Awesome, Sekhmet!" she called, and got a pleased swish of a star-tipped tail in response.

But then again, she did have a huge type advantage.

Crasher Wake took out another safari ball after he recalled Alejandro. "Rodolfo!"

The Quagsire had been a pretty tough opponent in Barry's match, and when facing it, she saw that the rubber-skinned lizard looked more aggressive than passive, not something his usually easygoing species was known for.

"Return, Sekhmet," she recalled her Luxray, invoking her right as victor for a free switch-in before the battle began. "And, go . . ." Her fingers dawdled over Neptune's Poké ball, briefly considering sending him before making up her mind and reaching for her own safari ball. Best to really take advantage of type advantages. "Medusa!"

Her grass-type landed with a flail of her long limbs, and her vines slithered on the ground like a hundred Seviper. Her form was much larger than it had been when she had been caught, with limbs actually distinguishable from other vines now.

Dawn twisted her neck, letting it crack sharply. It wasn't as loud as Bebe's, but it felt good and loosened her up. "Poison powder!" she ordered.

Medusa lifted her right vine, and in a parody of a kiss blew on the tips of her 'fingers'. Purple spores flew across the air, swirling across like dust before Rodolfo shot them down with a widespread brine attack. The spores were caught by the 'rain', and didn't manage to poison the Quagsire.

Not yet, anyways.

"Respond in kind with yawn, Rodolfo!"

He yawned widely and let the bubble float forwards.

No place for Medusa to swing from vines in this gym. "Into the water!"

Medusa dove into the water instead of letting the bubble pop on her.

"Water pulse!"

Rodolfo ambled towards the edge of the pool and placed both 'hands' on the surface of the water. A ring of water settled into the surface, shaking and sending ripples across the entire pool. Medusa took it easily, but she seemed slightly shaken.

Hopefully not too shaken. "Medusa," Dawn called. "Poison powder!"

In response to that, Medusa slapped her head with her own vine. Dawn resisted the urge to slap her own forehead. Confused by water pulse, curse her luck.

Crasher Wake laughed. "Rodolfo, join the Tangrowth in the water. Yawn and brine."

Rodolfo waddled forth, toothless mouth opening wide.

"Medusa, get out of the water!" She couldn't have her drowning after falling asleep.

Medusa waded – away from the shore. She avoided the yawn's bubble by sheer luck, but she circled in the water. Rodolfo snickered as he swam closer.

Dawn was about to return Medusa before she got more hurt, but then, as she turned in circles on spot now, floating easily due to her body being made up of vines, Medusa winked when her back faced Rodolfo and Crasher Wake.

"Medusa," Dawn said slowly, trying very hard not to grin. Her Tangrowth was a genius. "Got it? Vine whip."

In response to that Medusa flipped in the water, submerging her head underneath for a while before she came back up and slapped herself once more.

Rodolfo opened his mouth once he had come close enough, and would have spat out salt water – something Medusa wouldn't have appreciated – when all of a sudden, Medusa's cloudy eyes sharpened and she lunged forth with her vine-like arms. Rodolfo squealed when the long arms wrapped around him.

"Mega drain!" Her vines began glowing with a green energy, and Rodolfo squealed in pain as the energy reached the parts of the vines touching him, invading him and draining him of his health.

"Rodolfo, water pulse!" Crasher Wake barked, and the Quagsire tried to send the pulse into Medusa's head.

But Medusa clung on and drained him of his health, replenishing her own with his energy. Whatever injuries she had sustained, she healed herself of with her foe's own health. All tangled up in her vines as he was, Rodolfo couldn't escape even as he struggled while Medusa calmly drained away all of his energy.

In the end, he went limp inside of Medusa's arms, and Wake returned him. "Clever, faking confusion," he said.

"It's all her," Dawn said. She hadn't even realized Medusa had been faking it. Her Tangrowth was a great actress, it seemed.

"Well then, I hope the two of you will be able to work together hard enough to handle – Sergio!"

The Floatzel appeared, and even at the start of materialization he was in a battle stance, crouched and ready to leap upon anything with his sharp fangs.

"Poison powder! Everywhere!"

Medusa didn't blow the spores in an imitation of a kiss she had seen in a movie that had been playing during a checkup like she had for Rodolfo. Instead, she flailed. She threw her arms out, dancing and twirling to spread her vines and moved around as much as she could, all the while throwing out purple-tinged powder she had created. The cloud of purple moved towards the enemy Floatzel, approaching from the side of the water.

Sergio didn't – couldn't – go into the water without going through the cloud of poison powder, and he didn't have anywhere else to go.

Crasher Wake nodded from his side of the field. "Serg," he said, almost mildly. "A strong water gun to wash out the air."

The Floatzel took a deep breath, puffing out its chest, and then let out not a condensed ball of water but a stream. He sprayed it everywhere, and the spores fell to the ground, too heavy to float around when they became waterlogged.

Medusa was hit a few times, and she huffed. Just when she had managed to dry off from her dip in the water, she had gotten wet again. Now she wouldn't be able to use poison powder until she was dry, and who knew how long that would take, given her current foe?

Dawn knew what was coming, though, and she opened her mouth to give an order when –

BANG

Startled, she looked towards the entrance, where Barry stood, door slowly beginning to fall back after being slammed open. A little behind him was Lucas, who looked mortified.

"Hey, you started!" he shouted at her. "How's it going?"

There was a squeal from the arena.

"Medusa!" Dawn yelped and focused back on the battle, but Sergio had been too fast. The Floatzel was _right_ there, _right_ in Medusa's face, lunging to avoid her flailing vines and chomping down on anywhere he could reach with fangs covered in frosty energy.

"Ancient power!" she shouted, but already her Tangrowth had been iced over. One harsh, cold bite to the neck, and then she crumbled forwards. The ice broke slightly when she hit the ground, but that was it.

Dawn recalled her, and then glared at Barry, who waved and smiled sheepishly before hurrying to the bleachers, Lucas at his side. Even from where she was she could see that the quieter boy's face was redder than a cheri berry.

Mad at herself more than Barry for not paying attention in a battle, she huffed, and then sent out Sekhmet, who, as usual, came out with a challenging roar that shook the very air.

Dawn smirked when she saw Sergio falter slightly at the sight of her Luxray.

"Serg, into the water," Wake barked, and the Floatzel dove into the water. "Swift!"

"Charge-spark, protect yourself!"

The smatterings of lights shaped like stars flew to Sekhmet, but the electricity she covered herself with neutralized most of the threat.

In the water, Sergio made taunting sounds and gestures that had her Luxray bare her fangs angrily.

"Leer!"

Sekhmet glowered, eyes glowing eerily. Sergio quickly ducked into the water, and then popped up elsewhere. "Keep leering!"

"Duck!"

Every attempt Sekhmet made to make eye contact, Sergio ducked back into the water to avoid before he popped up with either a swift or a water gun. She bared her teeth furiously as she shook out her fur for the umpteenth time, but her Luxray looked cold and miserable, while Sergio looked like he was having just too much fun.

Finally, Sekhmet began to let electricity run across her coat, and she began to wade into the water once more. "Don't go in the water!" Dawn said sharply, and Sekhmet, though eyeing Sergio viciously, didn't wade in.

Wake narrowed his eyes, and then it happened. Sergio twitched in the water, a spasm running through his body.

Dawn smiled in relief while Crasher Wake ordered an unending barrage of swift. Swimming closer, Sergio opened his mouth to let the lights pour out. Even spark couldn't keep the stars off for long, but Sekhmet held out for as long as she could, biting and shaking off the swift stars as best as she could until one finally hit her hard enough.

"Out of the water, Sergio," Wake said, and the Floatzel dragged himself out, coughing and rummaging. He took out a sitrus berry and chomped it down hastily before sighing in slight relief. "Your Tangrowth poisoned the pool, didn't she?"

A sitrus berry . . . at least it hadn't been something to cure status, like a lum or a pecha berry. She just had to stall a little while longer. "Yes."

When Dawn had first seen the pool, she had been worried, fearing that the poison would dissipate too much to be really effective. Luckily, it hadn't. She guessed that one of Medusa's clumps had dissolved around the area where Sergio had passed through, poisoning the Floatzel while he thought he was dodging Sekhmet's leers.

She had hoped that Sekhmet could outlast the Floatzel, but that was fine. He was already poisoned, judging from his hard breathing, and she still had one last Pokémon.

Helios would have been ideal, what with his teleporting and leaf blades. But her starter would do great, she knew.

Dawn let Neptune out. "You're my last one, Neptune, Let's do this!"

On the field, he stretched his back and took a deep breath, surveying the arena. "Don't go in the water," she warned him. "It's been poisoned."

He eyed the pool, and then let out a water sport while pointedly looking at Sergio.

Despite herself, she smiled. "He's already poisoned too."

Neptune glared at Sergio, and then hurriedly had to let out a bubble beam to counter the swift that nearly hit him in his face. A few stray stars slipped through and peppered him on his stomach, but the majority were cancelled out by the bubbles.

Sergio was forced to cut off the swift attack when he coughed. He must have swallowed some of the poisoned water. It was eating him out from the inside.

"Pluck!"

Neptune ran forwards as fast as he could. He didn't have Sergio's speed or sleekness in his body of a Prinplup's, but what he lacked there he made up for plenty with pride and confidence.

Sergio shot a brine at him once he had recovered his breath, but Neptune lifted a flipper to get the worst of it away. The Piplup family lived in bitter cold seawater, and wild Piplup swam through icy oceans with their parents shortly after birth so they could learn how to survive and evolve. Prinplup broke down trees and dragged them into the ocean to prove themselves to their greatest judges and critics – themselves. Empoleon sliced through ice floes with their steel-edged wings.

A little saltwater was nothing to him. He dove, ripping with his curved beak. Sergio tried to bat him away, and despite being punched in the face he still grabbed with his beak and pulled.

And Sergio wasn't the only one that could use saltwater. "Brine, too!"

Neptune's plucking had left some marks on him and now the salt was getting in the wounds.

Sergio hissed, and then jumped into the water of the pool. They were poisoned, but so was he, and the powders in the pool were sinking to the bottom of the pool as they became waterlogged. He wanted to wash out the salt from the wounds.

The Floatzel aqua jetted out of the water and rocketed back onto the ground, landing neatly on his feet as soon as the brine's salt had been washed out from his wounds.

"Pluck!"

Neptune charged.

But Sergio wasn't an ordinary Pokémon. He was the signature Pokémon of Crasher Wake and held the name 'Sergio' for a good reason.

Crasher Wake lifted his hands to his mouth and blew an ear-piercing whistle. Neptune paused at the sound, wondering what was going on, but Sergio didn't. He summoned water – freshwater – and wrapped himself with it before he dashed forwards. Neptune, hit by the blindingly fast attack, stumbled and very nearly fell into the poisoned pool himself. He was fast, much faster than he had been before.

"Aqua jet again!"

Sergio struck, aiming for Neptune's back while the Prinplup tried to hit back and retaliate somehow. He was like a ghost, near-impossible to actually hit and leaving nothing but water behind where he had been when Neptune turned to face him. _He_ was the one to initiate contact.

But that speed required a sacrifice in power. The lack of physical power behind the move, as well as Neptune's resistance gave them an advantage. Neptune flailed whenever Sergio attacked, landing frantic scrambles on Sergio's head, neck and back area. It forced the orange mammal to think about where to strike, and every second passing was a race against him.

"Aqua jet!" Crasher Wake pointed at Neptune. Or rather, at the ground between his webbed feet. "Sergio, knock him over!"

The Floatzel was a water-covered orange blur one moment, clear the next with water droplets slipping off of his thick coat like they were nothing. Neptune lost his balance and fell on his back. He wiggled, trying to roll back onto his feet.

Sergio punched him in his stomach, and he gasped for breath as the air was knocked out of his lungs.

"Neptune!"

* * *

He heard her calling his name, and he grimaced as he swung at the water-type while struggling to get back to his feet. Stupid Floatzel, knocking him down. This was no way to fight.

He really didn't like these guys. They were too cocky for being orange-furred rodents who had no place in water.

"Can't you win even when your foe's weak and poisoned?" the Floatzel said tauntingly as he danced back to avoid a metal claw to the face, and Neptune remembered the scarred leader of the Buizel, the one that had made him bleed and Dawn scream at the sight of his face. This one wasn't scarred and didn't have followers surrounding him, but it still made him remember feeling powerless.

"Go kiss a Gyarados," he replied while trying to regain his footing, angry that the Floatzel would question his power. He was, however, just as angry that it was a Floatzel he was facing. All of them seemed to bring him nothing but grief, and he hated it.

The Floatzel lunged forth in an aqua jet, and knocked him back flat. Neptune snarled and swung at him. "Cut it out!"

"I'd rather not. 'Sides, you can't win."

One last hit shoved him off the edge – he hadn't even realized that he was being pushed towards the water – and made him sink into the water, the place that was poisoned. He tried not to drink any of the water and struggled to swim back up.

His movements were seizing up, though, and it was getting difficult to move. For a moment, he wondered if he was poisoned, but then saw in the murky water that there was some kind of aquatic plants entwined around his feet, almost like they had a life of their own.

Neptune kicked at them. He had to get back up there, because this match was too much like the battle in that tournament between Dawn and the blond boy a while back, with him being the last one up facing an orange-furred water-type. He couldn't lose again – not only would that make Dawn lose the challenge like she lost the tournament, that would also mean he had failed again.

And to fail would be to not prove himself to everyone else. Helios, who apparently couldn't make it for some reason, Medusa, who had probably been the one to poison the Floatzel and weaken him, Sekhmet, who would probably boast about the Pokémon she took down.

The funny thing was, he thought as he swam around, searching for the best way to get back up on the ground. The Floatzel was probably waiting out there, searching for him. His colouring would hide him for a bit, though, camouflaging him into his surroundings. If his foe was poisoned, it would be best to stretch it out –

A volley of lights shaped like stars struck the water, and flew towards him. He tried to protect himself with metal claw, and only managed to keep his weaker spots from being hit. He hissed when he felt the wounds throb. Maybe the poison was entering his system through the wounds.

Hurt by his teammate's own machinations. There was something funny in that, but he didn't laugh in the situation as more swifts came flying into the water. He had to leave soon, so he could counterattack. Then he'd probably chew out Medusa for poisoning the water and making it harder for him.

Neptune swam, faster in the water than he was on land. Even if it was poisoned, there was something comforting about the water. He popped his head up, spat out a bubble beam to counter a swift, and then ducked back in after taking a deep breath.

He wasn't a very good leader, if he thought about it, and it was easy to think about under the water, where everything had a different sound than it did outside in the air, and he was alone.

Sure, he was named the leader by Dawn, but what, exactly, did he do that made him a leader? All he did was be bossy to his teammates, and impose himself upon others, trying to prove to them that he was great. And yet, he hadn't even fully evolved, he never won against a Floatzel, and hadn't been particularly important for anything recently, except in his role as a punching bag to train for the water-type gym.

Something orange rocketed into him, and he opened his beak in surprise – and pain – when the Floatzel smashed into his back. "Less thinking!" the water-type barked. "Time to battle, not philosophise!"

The Floatzel kicked at Neptune, using him to propel himself backwards. His tails spun so that he could swim around the entire place like he had a motor pushing him.

Neptune sent a bubble beam after him, but the Floatzel ducked underwater and sent a swift attack. He dove deeper, ready to confront the Pokémon.

Right, time to battle. Because if he wanted to think about being a better leader, he could do so later and really prove himself to his teammates later. Right now, he had to focus.

The Floatzel was faster than him even in water, but Neptune saw that this speed came from his tails.

Dawn apparently saw the same thing, because when he went up for air, she shouted "The tails! That's why he's fast! Metal claw and pluck!"

He plucked at the Floatzel's tails, and was rewarded with a hiss of pain and a stinging slap on the face.

Still, even as the Floatzel thrashed and kicked at him, Neptune refused to let go. This time, he was going to beat the Floatzel in battle. This would be a start in proving that he was good to Dawn, to his teammates, to this Floatzel . . .

And to himself.

In his heart, something settled in relief, and he began to glow.

* * *

Both she and Crasher Wake tried to shout orders at the geysers of water being kicked up in the pool, but Dawn doubted that either Pokémon could actually hear them through the din of it all. Worried that her Prinplup would get hurt and drown – a horrible end to any water-type, especially her proud starter – she had her hand on his Poké ball just in case the entire time.

"C'mon, Neptune," she muttered, searching. Sergio's orange fur was all-too visible in the water, but Neptune was harder to see. Occasionally she caught glimpses of his golden crown, but then lost sight of it soon after. "You can do this."

As if in response to her words, the entire water-filled pool began to _glow_, bright enough for every person watching to notice.

Barry may not have been the one to realize the truth first, but he was the first to say it out loud. He punched the air with a fist and laughed. "He's evolving!"

Before the glow even faded away completely Neptune shot out of the pool, encased in water just like Sergio had been. Sergio followed, an orange blur covered in water, but Neptune landed on the ground first – taller than he had been – and then turned around to tear at the Floatzel with a pluck.

When he did so, the water from the aqua jet fell away, and Dawn gasped at the now-darker, navy blue aquatic bird that stood tall with his crown pointed in three like a trident.

Sergio shot a water gun right into his face, but Neptune batted it away and then slapped his face with a metal-edged wing, tips glowing. The last of evolution's light began fading from him, but he still stood tall like he wasn't tired at all.

Dawn would have laughed if she didn't realize that she had to take advantage of this now. "Brine!"

Sure, there was a type disadvantage in attacking a water-type with a water-type move, but Sergio was wounded and at his limits, doubling the effect of the move. That, combined with Neptune's new evolution and his same type advantage was enough to knock out Crasher Wake's last Pokémon cleanly.

Barry would whine about his master losing later. Right then and there, he cheered loudly and obnoxiously for the victor, for his friend Dawn.

Dawn jumped out of the trainer's section and into the arena after the force field dropped so she could run up to her starter, who was now taller than her. She jumped onto him with an Ursaring hug, ignoring the sharp tips of the wings that would have most likely hurt her if Neptune hadn't carefully shifted them away from slashing at her skin just in time.

"Look at you," she gasped, holding him at arm's length for a second before engulfing him in a hug again. "_Look_ at you!"

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Neptune (Empoleon), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Gallade), Frejya (Lopunny), Medusa (Tangrowth)

_Home:_ Faith (Eevee)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash),

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: Longest chapter, longest AN.

Neptune finally evolves! I hate to make it in such a clichéd place, but he did actually evolve right after the gym battle, so I threw it in there because why not.

In case some people didn't get the memo, Crasher Wake is my favourite Sinnoh Leader. Most of the prominent water-type trainers look like they're more oriented around being elegant and sleek, but Wake breaks the mold and goes for the tough approach. Also I like his character and backstory.

This chapter's battle . . .not my favourite. The actual battle itself was too easy and there was only so much stretching of the truth I could do. Let's just chalk it up to Dawn having lots of type advantages. *shrug*

Still, we're finally done the Pastoria arc! . . . and I may not be able to update for a while. I'll definitely try to meet my usual schedule, but no guarantees for an undetermined amount of time due to personal reasons.

If you pay attention to the roster, you'll notice a few missing Pokémon. I removed the ones who had their ownerships changed so I could clean up the lists.

When I first started uploading Titanium it was around 180k+ and the longest single story I'd written, and now we've reached 180k+ words. I'd like to say that this is the last chapter of Titanium, so thank you to everyone who supported this story. Reviewers, you were amazing, and I love you all. Goodbye, friends.

.

.

.

Just kidding.

Not about you guys being amazing, that part's true. But Titanium's still going strong (Word puts the total thing around 280k+ and I think it's only going to get longer), and I will finish this, unless I die.

Which I might, given summer plans. So please review and break 100!


	25. Shadows Slipping Through Fingers

A.S.107

October 2nd 

_Going home now that we've won the badge and Barry and Lucas are back._

* * *

"How is it?" Wake asked quietly into the small microphone.

The flesh-coloured piece in his ear crackled slightly_. "Good,"_ came the reply. _"Who would have thought that putting honeycombs on top of soft ice cream would taste so good?"_

Crasher Wake refrained from swearing out loud, but just barely. "Not the food," he hissed. Next to him, Marsh, his Croagunk, pretended like he wasn't hearing any of this and idly kicked at the grass in front of the bench his trainer sat on. Lucky 'mon, not having to deal with trainers who were supposed to be looking out for potential trouble at a conference and not just eat the food.

He was going to have some words with his gym trainers later, when the detectives from both PCPD and Interpol were gone.

And speaking of said detectives, he could practically hear their disapproval radiating over from their lines. Probably regretting bringing him and his trainers into this.

_"Oh," _came the sheepish reply_. "Well, so far, nothing looks like it's going wrong. Just people from Galactic going around and doing good stuff."_

_Yes, _Wake thought, going slightly stir-crazy from having to wait around for so long while pretending that he wasn't up to anything_, but people from _which_ Galactic?_

Wake wasn't the best politician around Pastoria. Most of the things he did, he managed to do through virtue of fame, effort and sheer stubbornness. He had never had the head for the slippery political double talk and backstabbing.

Granted, Pastoria was a fairly mild, good-natured city in terms of politics, but that had only been after he had managed to weed out all the corruption in the council and other high positions after becoming gym leader. And even then, he had left the political talk and manoeuvring to Professor Rowan.

Galactic Corporations, though, was another matter entirely. They had an army of lawyers that just made it impossible for the police to take action against them without solid, irrefutable evidence that they were linked to shady deals – which, of course, no one had, because the 'Team Galactic' that was causing troubles around the region supposedly didn't have a connection to Galactic Corporations.

If he had it right, the argument was that the word 'Galactic' wasn't exclusive to the company. Galactic Corporations didn't know what exactly Team Galactic wanted, but their words were that they found those ruffians horrible for their business, and would want nothing more than the team to be taken off the streets for good.

And to be fair, they did have a point. Team Galactic just seemed like an odd cult based on the statements a few different witnesses had given. The group was heavily interested in investigating the myths of Sinnoh, kidnapping and questioning a bike shop owner that was a member of a caretaker family of Eterna's famous statue, or poking around Lake Valor a few months prior.

Compared to that, Galactic Corporations acted like they couldn't get to the future fast enough. They were a relatively new company, but already catching international attention with the products they put out on the market.

"_Wake_," Detective Koya from Interpol said, thankfully more serious than his ice-cream loving trainer inside the conference room above the Great Marsh supposedly keeping an eye on Galactic Corporation's event thingamabob. _"Person of interest. That woman in the jean jacket's been glancing at you for five minutes now."_

_"It could just be because he's a gym leader."_

_"But he's in disguise, she shouldn't know that."_

Disguise. Right. If anyone could call just slipping off a wrestler's mask and donning casual clothes a disguise.

To be fair, the mask had become his face to almost everyone. Even locals of the city could have a hard time recognizing him if he didn't have it on, or any of his Pokémon with him.

_"That could be _why_ she's staring – she might have found him familiar."_

_"Normal women don't just stare at random men they shouldn't recognize for five minutes."_

Wake rolled his eyes as the Pastoria detectives and Interpol agent began arguing again over the line in hissed whispers. Neither agencies were happy about working with each other, and in the tense situation where nothing was actually happening, nerves were snapping. "Is she actually looking at me," he asked, not lifting his eyes himself.

There was a pause. _"Yes," _came the reply.

He sighed.

_"Alright, here's what you should do," _Koya said slowly._ "Don't look at the woman. Glance at your watch, and slowly get up like you don't want to but really should."_

He did so, and cracked his neck with an exaggerated sigh. "C'mon," he said to his walking Pokémon. "It's time to get back."

Marsh, recognizing the role he was to play, made some whining sounds but climbed to his feet as well.

_"Go back to your gym. Do some drills, or lead your trainers on a training session. Look busy and occupied so that if they're wary of you, they'll drop their guard and try to make their move. Be away from the Marsh, but not too away-"_

"Crasher Wake?"

He flinched in surprise. Having been listening carefully to Koya's instructions, he hadn't seen the young man approach. "Yes?" he asked, slightly turning his head so that his earpiece wouldn't be noticed.

The young man – a trainer, from the Poké balls hanging from his belt – grinned. "I thought you were out of the city!"

A hopeful challenger.

He had an idea stirring in his head. "I was, but business ended earlier than I expected," he said smoothly. "You made an appointment for a challenge, didn't you?"

The young man nodded.

"How'd you like to get an early battle?"

* * *

The young man, named Arthur, turned out to be an Ace Trainer seeking out his seventh badge. He was skilled, utilizing a strategy built around his Gastrodon's storm drain ability and his Raichu's type advantage, but lost to Sergio at the end.

"Good battle," he said after his opponent's fainted Raichu had been recalled.

"Good battle," Arthur echoed, a good sportsman. "I look forward to challenging you again in the near future, Crasher Wake."

The second challenger he picked up had been a girl he recognized from Palmer's many tales. His old friend often dropped by Pastoria to have a drink together at least once a month, and kept in touch, often to brag about his son and a girl he considered his daughter in all but name.

"Both of them could beat you easily," the blond man had boasted.

And while Wake would challenge Palmer on the 'easily' part of his claim, he had to agree. The two of them were young, but definitely talented and would go far.

"A splendid battle!" he boomed as he approached the girl – Dawn – hugging her newly evolved Empoleon. The Empoleon, being a proud Pokémon by nature, held a stoic look, but he showed affection by not shrugging off his trainer.

She would definitely go far, if she could get an Empoleon to bend its infamous pride to withstand a hug in public. They weren't easy Pokémon to train.

Dawn patted Neptune's back one last time, and then turned around. "Thank you, Crasher Wake," she said politely.

"I had a great time battling with you!" he said, before opening his large fist and presenting a badge to her. "You've definitely earned the Fen Badge. And here's a TM for brine. Your Empoleon may know it, but you can teach it to other Pokémon of yours. It's a pretty handy move to use late in the match, isn't it?"

She nodded, and took both of his offerings with gratitude.

"Well, now that both of you beat me in the first try, I owe Palmer a drink," he muttered.

Dawn laughed, and he grinned at her before his face suddenly dropped. "What?"

"I'm sorry?" Dawn said, but he had turned around, and a hand on his ear. He wasn't talking to her, she realized. "I'll just go now," she mumbled quietly so she wouldn't disturb him, and then slunk out of the gym, taking the path behind to bypass the water maze she had just come through.

Barry met her outside, Lucas trailing after him. "You won!" he howled, wrapping her in a hug that was more of a full-out tackle than an actual hug. It nearly knocked Dawn over.

"I won!" she said, and hugged Barry back. For a moment they tried to out-hug each other, until both of their arms strained from the effort and their necks hurt.

Dawn gave first, and Barry released her. She spun around and hugged Lucas as well, who sputtered and flailed under the sudden hug. "Group hug!" she shouted, and Lucas cringed. "Sorry," she added, sheepish for having pulled a Barry by inconsiderably shouting right into his ear.

"That was a really cool battle," Lucas said as she and Barry squashed the life out of him. "But – what about your Pokémon?"

"Good point," Barry said, releasing them immediately. "To the center! Race you there!"

"Oh come on!" Dawn protested, but she began running as well. "I just had a gym battle! That's not fair!"

"What's not fair is an unfair start like this one," Lucas muttered to himself, but he was smiling and running along with them.

Surprisingly, Lucas was a really fast runner. The three of them got some stink eyes from other people as they yelled and ran through the street on the way to the center, but Dawn was just too occupied with trying to catch up that she didn't care as much.

"I win!" Barry announced. "Sorry," he added to the person he nearly knocked over in his run.

"Watch where you're going," the man snapped, shoving Barry. He stumbled, and nearly hit Lucas, who stopped right before collision.

Dawn narrowed her eyes at the man that was stalking away. While it had been Barry's fault, there hadn't been a need to be rude.

But Barry brushed that off like a Golduck shedding water. "C'mon, time to get your Pokémon healed up."

"Right!"

Lucas stared at the man a little longer. There wasn't much unusual about him, other than his rudeness – his clothes were plain and didn't stand out, and already Lucas couldn't recall any features about his face – but still, something felt off about him.

The rude man sat on the bench outside, near the Great Marsh's entrance, and pulled a handheld game device out from his pockets.

"Lucas, you coming or what?"

He decided it was nothing, just some scowling college student picking on kids younger than him, and ducked into the center.

* * *

All throughout the two challenges, there hadn't been any word of trouble, but right after he gave the girl her badge, his earpiece crackled and Koya's urgent voice came through.

_"There's a person of interest, heading to the side entrance of the Great Marsh. He has a backpack."_

Wake tensed. "What?"

The girl Palmer boasted about – Dawn – looked confused, but he didn't have time to set anything straight. Politely, she left him alone to deal with his problems.

When Interpol and the Champion had first informed him that there was a potential threat to his city, his first worry was that he wouldn't be able to do anything to protect Pastoria. Even if so far, nothing had been found and the lead suspects weren't up to anything, except apparently holding a convention to demonstrate the latest in armour, the target demographic of their latest product being rangers and trainers.

Two rangers and one of his gym trainers were in there, keeping an eye out for any trouble. Detectives from the Pastoria City Police Department and Interpol were surrounding the area in casual wear, with teleport locked down by psychic and ghost-types. He was on standby, ready to run in there if need be with his Pokémon, and there were Wooper with the damp ability snuck in the Great Marsh building just in case some crazy idiot decided to use explosion.

And now it looked like they had something.

_"Don't make a scene, but stop him. Good. Check the contents. Careful."_

For a few tense minutes, there were no words on the line, just background noise. Wake placed the Pokémon that had battled into the healing machine, and then grabbed the Poké balls he had set aside just in case earlier on.

_"Clear," _the word came at last, sounding as flatly frustrated as he felt._ "Just a part-time employee late for his job, no Pokémon on him. He's not a threat."_

Wake exhaled, and loosened his grip on the Safari ball he had been holding onto. "Are you sure that this is the right place to be looking?" he asked, exasperated.

His answer came, unfortunately, in the form of an explosion and screams.

* * *

Dawn was told that she would have to wait for twenty minutes before the Pokémon she had handed over – Themis, Neptune, Medusa and Sekhmet – would be fully healed. She did, however, get Helios back, all better now.

Just in case, however, she was told to let him take it easy for a few days.

"We should celebrate," Barry said. "What with Neptune evolving and you winning that badge."

Dawn was in the midst of agreeing when they heard the explosion. Someone in the center screamed, and instinctively, everyone flinched at the boom.

"C'mon," Barry said, jumping to his feet when the sound began fading down. "We should check that out."

"That doesn't sound like a -" Lucas began, but followed them anyways when Dawn and Barry sped out through the door anyways. "Good idea . . . ."

Outside the center, they paused and looked around, searching for the source of the noise. There were people murmuring or looking worried, and the air was filled with a loud noise she didn't place just yet, but otherwise there didn't –

"Look!" Someone pointed behind the center. Dawn backed away so that the bright orange roof of the public building didn't block her view, and saw the source of the background noise, as well as the explosion.

"Mespirit," she breathed.

There was a pillar of thick, dark grey smoke rising up into the air. And the sky, formerly gray with clouds, now looked like it was gray because it was filled with panicked Staravia and Starly. Their powerful wings flapping, individually, would have made it sound like thick textbooks were being opened and shut loudly, but all together, enough to make the blue skies darkened with feathers and living creatures, it was a cacophony of irregular, fast-paced thuds, accompanied by squawks and shrieks of panic, surprise and growing fury.

There had to be hundreds, if not a thousand of them. Dawn had never seen so many of them all at once in real life, and it was terrifying.

"Everyone get inside!" a blond man in a suit barked, running towards the Marsh's direction. He flashed some kind of badge. "Police! Get to safety, now! Inside!"

In the confusion and potential danger, the people listened to the figure of authority who sounded like he knew what he was doing, heading to the building nearest to them. The policeman released an Absol and a Metagross, and both intimidating Pokémon turned to face the skies filled with birds with grim determination.

Dawn would have pulled Barry back inside the center, but he got distracted. "Master!" he shouted.

Crasher Wake was running towards them from the direction of the gym, a jacket with the Pastoria Croagunk logo yanked on around him. He looked up and saw the flying-types, and threw out three Poké balls of his own, releasing an Empoleon, a Floatzel and a Gastrodon.

"Get inside!" he roared, his voice reaching them clearly over the din of wings flapping and shrill bird cries.

She began pulling him back in, worried, when Lucas gasped. "That man!" he shouted, pointing to a running guy.

Then, he did the most un-Lucas-like thing she had ever seen him do. He ran after him, and away from any safety.

"Lucas – no!"

But he ignored her shout. Groaning, she began running after him when Barry grabbed her arm and yanked her back. A crowd was heading their way, trying to get into the publically open Pokémon Center for safety, and they were getting in the way. People shoved past them so they could get inside, and Dawn nearly tripped.

"You only have two Pokémon on you," he said firmly. "Stay. You'll get in the way."

"Hey!" she tried to protest, but he pushed her into the throng of people trying to get into the safety of the center away from the hoard of birds, and it was hard for her to fight against the opposing tide of the crowd, what with their nervousness, fear, and sharp elbows. She barely managed to break out. "Barry!"

But he was already running towards the direction Lucas had headed to.

She grumbled, and a large part of her really wanted to follow them.

But Dawn knew that he had a point. More than half her team was still healing, and Helios was supposed to take it easy just in case.

But that didn't mean it was right for them to risk it!

Dawn decided that she would head out after them when she got all her Pokémon back. And probably try to beat some sense into their heads for running into danger and leaving her behind.

With one last look at their shrinking figures, she turned around and joined the last of the people rushing into the center.

* * *

"Don't attack yet," Detective Koya instructed, eyeing the hoard. There were rangers and officers on the way to face the potential threat, but if that hoard of panicked Staravia decided to get violent, there would be casualties. "Diebenkorn, light screen and reflect. Horatio, stealthy swords dance. Be discreet, both of you. DB, if they attack, I want a gravity, but only when I give the word."

Smart man. While Staravia flocks attacking would be a pain, it was possible that the birds would simply settle down elsewhere once the initial panic wore off. If they were just attacked outright, however, or even just egged on into getting offensive, it might have brought down more trouble than it was worth. He was preparing, but not openly aggravating any Pokémon.

The Metagross, grunting, put up a near-invisible shield up around them, while the Absol tensed up and slowly swung the blades on his head and tail. The actions didn't attract the attention of the panicked flying-types, but it prepared them on the ground for any attacks the birds might begin raining down on them. They had the advantage with the height, but preparations were being taken to neutralize them.

Wake's respect for the young detective went up further. He was a skilled trainer with well-trained Pokémon on him.

"Charge up a blizzard," he instructed his Empoleon and Gastrodon. "But release only on command."

For a few tense moments, in the empty streets, the only sounds in the city were that of flying-types. He saw some beginning to settle in other parts of the Marsh farther from Pastoria, or head elsewhere altogether, but there were still many in the skies, enough to make the section around them cloudy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some rangers with Pokémon out themselves, waiting.

When a loud shriek from a Staraptor that flew further up into the sky, breaking away from the hoard tore the air, he very nearly thought that he would have to deal with this wild hoard and almost gave the signal to attack.

Luckily, whether because most of the Pokémon in the Great Marsh were milder than most or because the command from the raptor Pokémon had been for the Staravia flock to stand down, the large birds in the sky began to settle down.

Detective Koya sighed in relief as the birds began drifting off, and reached out to stroke his Absol's head.

Wake didn't relax. "They're not heading back into the Marsh," he noticed.

"What?" The detective from Interpol looked up from his Absol.

"They're not heading back into the Marsh." Because Staravia flocks, while commonly found in the Safari Zone, weren't the only Pokémon found in its limits. The only reason they had been noticed was because they could fly out.

But inside . . .

The other Pokémon would probably have been just as, if not more, terrified as the Staravia had been. It was probably chaos in there. Pokémon inside the Marsh's Safari Zone were docile – normally – but right now, everyone inside was in danger.

"I'll go check on the Marsh," he said. "Give the rangers there a hand evacuating the people and calming down the Pokémon. Tell me just what your men figure out, and just what happened here."

Wake realized that his words came out brisk and curt, carrying the frustration he felt that this had happened despite his efforts.

Koya apparently understood his frustrations, however, because he nodded. "Got it. Good luck, Gym Leader. Be careful."

Wake recalled his Pokémon and ran towards the Marsh, praying to Azelf and other deities that no one was hurt too badly.

* * *

It was when they were running out of the city's entrance that Lucas realized just how bad this idea was. _I'm chasing a man who might not have anything to do with this,_ he thought to himself, _simply based on a hunch. A bad feeling. There's no logical reason as to why I should be chasing this man._

It sounded stupid, and he wondered if he should slow down. Maybe get inside, like he was told to.

Lucas frowned, and sped up again while he fumbled for a particular ball in his winter coat pocket. No, there was definitely something weird about this man, and it wasn't just the odd feeling he had gotten when he ran into him earlier on. There was no reason for this guy to be running out of Pastoria, especially after both a police officer and a gym leader had told him to get inside to safety –

Unless he was guilty, or knew something.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Hey you! Stop!"

The man didn't, and only continued to run faster. Lucas, feeling winded, realized that at this rate, if he didn't do something, he would lose the guy altogether and began fumbling more urgently at his Poké balls, trying to dig out the right one. Charlotte. Alan. Arthur. Miranda.

After a few false tries, he finally found the ball he was looking for. "Cupid!" he said as he released his startled Togetic into his arms. The white Pokémon fumbled, and looked at him with a question on his face.

"See that man?"

Cupid looked ahead, and saw him, far ahead. The man Lucas pointed at was a small figure in the distance, and would only get smaller.

"Go in the air, keep an eye on him!"

His Togetic nodded, and launched himself into the air out of his arms, fluttering his small, fairy-like wings to fly up.

Even when his legs felt like aching blocks of cement and the cold air of Sinnoh's winter burned harshly in his lungs, Lucas pushed himself after the guy. He had to stop him somehow, had to catch up –

A huge shadow passed over his head, and Lucas glanced up to see a familiar Staraptor flying ahead, catching up easily to Cupid in mere seconds before passing him.

From behind, Lucas heard the sound of someone else running up to him. "Dude!" Barry huffed.

"We've got to stop him!" he cut in before Barry could say anything. He appreciated his friend and all, but right now, he had to do this. He had no time to explain, no time to listen to any arguments against.

He didn't have to.

"Never said we weren't," he said, sounding almost offended that Lucas would think that about him. "Just saying – Starling's faster."

That, he had to admit was true.

"C'mon, let's catch that guy."

It didn't take long. Starling had begun to lightly attack the man, who had to release a Glameow to deal with the Staraptor that was pecking at his head while swatting at his back with threatening cries and powerful wings.

The cat Pokémon whirled around, and pink hearts floated from it to Starling. When the hearts struck Starling, they burst, and suddenly Barry's Staraptor stumbled in the air, very nearly plummeting to the cold ground headfirst.

"That's attract! Cupid, don't let them hit!"

Cupid barely managed to dodge the other burst of hearts from the Glameow, and continued to chase after the man, who was running away from both Starling and his own Pokémon.

Lucas had so far been trying to judge the man fairly, keeping in mind the possibility that he was innocent, but this erased any pity he may have had for the man, or any opinion that he was innocent of all this. If he had, he wouldn't have simply left his Pokémon behind.

And anyone who simply abandoned their Pokémon behind to protect them was pretty unworthy.

"Magical leaf!"

Cupid glowed with green light before the normal-type found itself peppered with tracking missiles of plant energy. It yowled, and Cupid shot off in the midst of the distraction. Shaking off the last of the attack, the Glameow began running after him, pursuing both its trainer and the Togetic.

"Starling, snap out of it!" Barry shouted as he pulled out another ball and released his Rapidash. "Should have thought of this sooner," he grumbled as Camarero knelt so Barry could clamber onto his back. "Lucas, catch up, alright?" he said as the Rapidash straightened and snorted.

"What? Barry, wait, that's dangerous -"

"Let's go – _whoah_!"

Camarero shot off, and it was a miracle that Barry managed to throw his arms around the Rapidash's neck. While the fiery horses could control the flames on their manes and tails to the point where they held very little heat and were all but illusions of fire, it had to be weird hugging the flames to his face.

And holding on for dear life on a very fast Pokémon's back, without a saddle while doing so. But that went without saying.

Feeling slower than he had ever felt in his entire life, Lucas ran after the already-far off Rapidash and the culprit. His legs burned, his heart pounded furiously and he was gasping for fresh oxygen that only stung at his heaving lungs, but he couldn't stop now.

Barry, far up ahead, had easily caught up to the guy, but now Camarero was trying to back away as a Croagunk aimed poison stings at him.

No, not at Camarero. At Barry. And the Rapidash was taking them instead, trying to protect the boy on his back from getting hit. Barry had to hold on for dear life, unable to slide off or release any of his other Pokémon.

"Arthur!" Lucas shouted, releasing his psychic. "Stop that Croagunk!"

The Kadabra assessed the situation, and recognizing that Barry – his trainer's possible friend and training partner – was in danger of being hit by something poisonous, made the Croagunk seize up in a psychic grip. The poison and fighting-type tried to resist, but Arthur followed up with a well-aimed psybeam to the head that knocked it out of consciousness.

Camarero stopped prancing around in an effort to block all the poison stings from reaching Barry. He let his trainer slide off his back, and neighed softly when the boy patted his side.

"Who are you?" Barry demanded as he turned away from his Pokémon. "What do you want? Are you the one that blew up the Marsh?"

The man sneered, and then dashed for Barry all of a sudden. Surprised, Barry froze, and would have either been caught or hurt by him had Arthur not teleported behind him and yanked him out of the way.

He ended up five meters away, behind the guy, dizzy and disoriented from the rush teleport. He fell to his knees, head unable to find his balance, and it was at that exact moment his stomach decided it would be a good idea to reject all of its contents and send it back up.

Barry puked, and the feeling of vomit exiting his mouth made him retch some more as the acrid taste burned at his tongue.

By that time, Lucas and the fliers had caught up, and Lucas released Charlotte and Miranda out as well. "Don't move!" he ordered, and his voice was stronger than he expected it to be.

"Or what?" the man asked, having turned around to face Barry again. He made a face of contempt at his foe, two boys.

But they were two boys with well-trained Pokémon, and he was outnumbered even if his current enemy were far younger than he was.

Charlotte let out a screech and spat a few embers in warning, her flaming tail lashing. Miranda held up a brightly lit finger with a mischievous smile.

"Why don't you find out?" Lucas dared, hoping to bluff him out.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. It looked like the man thought he still had a chance, because both of them were thirteen. He let out a yell that startled both Charlotte and Miranda, and ran forwards to rush them. Caught off-guard by the unexpected action, they reacted to him too late. Miranda had her face kicked cruelly, while Charlotte was picked up by her throat and thrown to the ground harshly. Stunned, she stared at the foot that was coming down at her face with a blank look in her eyes, not foreseeing the pain that was about to come her way.

Lucas shouted, and tried to run forwards while his fingers scrambled for Charlotte's ball, hoping, even if he knew, to return her before impact.

Another foot surged forth, far faster than Lucas or the cruel man, and kicked the man in his stomach. He made a sound of forcibly being relieved of all the air in his body, and was thrown backwards like a bad guy in an action movie being tossed around by the protagonist.

Charlotte, only just now realizing what could have happened, got back up slowly like she wasn't sure what had just happened. She followed the extended foot with her eyes as it returned back to its body, and found a Hitmonlee who nodded in her direction as he stood on two legs once more. Next to the Hitmonlee stood a bulky Heracross, who looked like it would be all-too happy to gore anything with its large horn.

Lucas returned both of them. "I'm so sorry, girls," he said. He hadn't expected for the man to actually fight Pokémon himself, but he should have thought of it, after sending Pokémon after him. And his Pokémon were hurt.

"Don't move," Barry said, having recovered from his dizzy spell after the sudden teleportation. He coughed slightly, but swallowed and continued on. "You're a suspicious person fleeing the scene of an explosion. You tried to attack us when we did nothing. Don't make it worse for yourself."

Curled up on the ground and moaning about his ribs, the man really had no choice but to do what Barry told him to do.

"Lucas," he said, and snapped Lucas out of his stupor. "Call the police."

He liked that idea. He began reaching into his pocket when he heard someone yelling at them from behind. "Hey! You kids!"

He turned around, and saw two men in uniform run up to them.

"Geez," one of them said, eyeing the two of them. "They can't be more than fifteen."

His partner waved him off. "You boys stopped this guy from running away?" he asked them.

Barry nodded. "This was in self-defense," he added, gesturing to the curled-up man.

The first one snorted. "Probably deserved it," he muttered. "Alright. You are under arrest for suspicion of a bomb attack. You have the right to remain silent, as anything you say can and _will_ be used against you. You have the rights to a legal counsel present. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you . . . ."

While the curled-up man got handcuffed, the second man extended his hand to Lucas, startling him. "Good job, boys," he said with a wide smile and glittering dark eyes.

Lucas took his hand, and it took every last bit of his will to prevent his face from wincing as his hand felt like it was crushed. "Er," he managed out. "No – no problem."

The officer let go and moved onto Barry, who held his own well. Probably better than Lucas had. "If it weren't for you boys, we might have missed him completely," he said with a large grin. "Fantastic job. Wish more trainers were like you."

He finished crushing Barry's hand, and then released a Kadabra of his own. "Teleport back," he said, and with a bright flash of light, all three of them disappeared.

The guy most likely to be responsible had been arrested. Everything would be alright now . . .

. . . right?

Except there was something suspicious in how the 'officers' had simply left with the suspect. How they hadn't asked more questions about what had happened, or even asked for contact information in case further questions were needed.

And anyone could just grab a uniform.

One look and Barry, and his friend's grim face told Lucas that his gut feeling, twisting up uncomfortably, wasn't too off.

"Call the police," Barry said, nearly begging as Lucas dug into his pocket once more. While he fumbled at the number, a nasty taste curling up on his tongue, Barry let out his Floatzel to join the three Pokémon that were out, and they kept a watchful eye out.

* * *

It wasn't until late in the next day that Dawn finally got to see Barry and Lucas again, and when she saw them tottering into the center's waiting room where she had been alternating between pacing and sitting impatiently, she blew up.

"Where have you two _been_?!" she screeched, and a little ahead, a frazzled woman dropped her Poké ball in surprise.

Barry, who looked like he had seen a war, merely sighed and sat down on one of the waiting room chairs. Lucas joined him, and he also wore the face of someone traumatized.

"Remember how we were chasing that guy?" he asked, looking frustrated and wrung out.

"Yeah." And left her behind. Which, while it had been the smart thing to do, given the condition of her Pokémon back then, had still left her without any word from either of them for almost twenty four hours. She had been worried sick about them and struck with guilt, wondering if it had been her fault for not going with them to keep them safe.

"We caught up to him," Lucas said when Barry didn't continue speaking, and Dawn looked like she was about to blow a gasket. "Barry and his Hitmonlee stopped him from hurting my Pokémon."

Dawn waited.

"Two men in uniform came up. They told us that they'd take over, handcuffed him, and teleported away with a Kadabra," Lucas continued, the words sounding worn like he had told them one too many times before already.

The story sounded good on paper, were it not for the exhausted, angry looks both of the boys had on their faces. "They weren't police officers."

Lucas nodded his head dejectedly. "They weren't."

Barry slammed his fist against his knee. "And they kept asking us, where did he go? What did the men look like? What did he say? Why didn't you-"

"Barry," Dawn said, putting a hand on the top of his head. His light hair was curly and soft against her palm, and she pressed down with enough force to not be painful, but make a point. "Inside voice."

His face turned slightly pink, but he still grumbled, albeit a little quieter.

"They told us that we were stupid, to have followed him without help," Lucas added for Barry when no further words came out of his mouth. "And, um, that we were reckless kids, and really shouldn't have gotten involved."

"Like we couldn't have!" Barry spat. Dawn was honestly slightly scared, having never seen Barry this angry before. His face, normally wearing an open and genuine smile, was hard, and looked murderous. "They were all busy with the Staravia, and _no one_ except us noticed him! That's not our fault! It's not like we saw a police officer nearby except that blond guy, and he and Master were busy! What were we supposed to do, just _drag_ them away and say, oh, there might be a bad guy, help us? Like they'd have believed us, and by then that guy would have been _long_ gone."

Lucas waited until the rant was over, gave two more seconds, and then spoke out. "Well, at least they let us go early," he said, trying to be optimistic.

"_Early_?" Dawn repeated, suddenly realizing just how much trouble they could have been in with the police. Resentment bubbled up inside – Barry was right, it really _wasn't_ fair, and how dare they keep her friends back for _that_ reason?

He smiled weakly. "I might have namedropped Professor Rowan," Lucas admitted. "And, er, Barry's dad. Only in passing, like who they should call for legal counsel and all that. And a guardian being present, because we're minors and all."

At Dawn's curious look, Lucas looked sheepish. "I kind of got addicted to watching 'Crime Scene Investigation' after, you know, we tried to report Team Galactic in Veilstone," he admitted. "It's made and set in Unova, but basic rights still apply here as well, apparently. And Professor Rowan's name carries a lot of weight."

It might have just been relief at learning what had happened to her friends, but Dawn began laughing hard at his comment, to the point where she had to join them on the seat and sit down. Even Barry broke his scary face and smiled widely.

"You know," he said when she had finally stopped laughing. "We still need to celebrate Neptune evolving and you winning your badge. You haven't gone and partied without us, right?"

Dawn shook her head. She'd been too worried about him and Lucas to even let out Neptune and the others – something she did feel horrible about, now that she knew they were safe. Better make it up to them.

It was like Barry had read her mind. "Then let's make up for it!" he said, and she smiled, knowing that he was back in a happier mood.

* * *

When the Gallade stopped glowing a light blue and opened his clear red eyes, Cynthia looked at the blade Pokémon and his trainer. "Well?" she asked. Reagan was a persistent and stubborn Gallade – he would have only stopped searching for the signal of the teleport of his own free will if he had found what he was looking for.

"Sunyshore," replied Lucian, adjusting his coloured glasses. "I would laugh if we hadn't well, lost the man."

Cynthia sighed. Interpol's inside man in Team Galactic had managed to get information about Galactic activity in Sunyshore and Pastoria on the first week of October through a stroke of sheer luck. Team Galactic was smarter than she had initially expected from Professor Rowan's description of them. They had split their organization into cells so that simply infiltrating one wasn't enough to find enough information to stop the whole thing.

She clenched her fist, feeling the jagged edges of her nails digging into her palms. Her nails had been picked to shreds out of nerves from preparing for this day, her way of taking out her frustrations and calming herself.

And now, their best lead had been blown with nothing gained, and more problems caused. The Great Marsh was swarmed with nosy investigators and rangers brought in from all over Sinnoh. There were still a few Pokémon that were spooked, and everyone was nervous.

And they still had nothing to link it back to Team Galactic, or to Galactic Corporations. Sunyshore had been a bust. They'd kept an eye on the ports, on the gym, on the lighthouse, on the market, even a far lookout on the weird-shaped rock that was strangely popular with movies about conspiracies set in Sinnoh.

Other than Volkner accidentally blowing the fuse for his gym – again – and a cruise ship coming back from Orre that had been cleared of any smuggled weapons onboard, there had been nothing in Sunyshore.

Cynthia wished she could simply rush into Galactic Corporations and just threaten the truth out of them with Gaia clearly expressing her frustration. There was something to be said about the effectiveness a larger-than-average Garchomp fed up with bullshit and willing to use unorthodox methods baring her teeth in someone's face in bringing out the truth.

And it was immensely satisfying to watch as well. She could use that right now, in her frustrated state. Team Galactic was new, but they were smart – and evolving. Initially they hadn't been perceived as a threat, and the only reason Interpol had asked the Sinnoh League for permission to look into them had been because of suspicions that they might have been trying to smuggle something in from Orre, something related to Cipher, the crime organization that had flourished when the desert region had been under the rule of the dictatorial Kurtz Family.

And then, after a few reported run-ins and 'mistaken identities' to do with Galactic Corporations, Team Galactic had changed. They were smarter, not getting involved with anything too flashy or attention-drawing, and not leaving enough information about what they were after behind to be discovered.

Cynthia rubbed her temples, beginning to feel a headache coming on. This incident, the bombing, she was pinning on Team Galactic. It looked like the explosion wasn't caused by a Pokémon, but rather a device. A bomb.

And what country specialized in developing human technology for weapons over Pokémon? Orre, the region Team Galactic supposedly had some connections with.

But all she had were hunches and circumstantial evidences, and the last time they had tried to apprehend Team Galactic, not only had they kicked up a fuss about being honest citizens working for Galactic Corporation – the odd company that dressed up their employees in what looked like spacesuits – but the media had apparently been given an anonymous tip about how authorities were falsely accusing innocents.

And then Eterna and Veilstone had been threatened with lawsuits, and both sides came to the agreement to just let things sit quietly and not kick sleeping Arcanine in the face.

Cynthia protested at this to Professor Rowan after he told her, of course, but officially she didn't have any power, and – and oh how she was beginning to hate this part – they had no proof.

Normally that wouldn't have mattered. Normally she and the Elite Four would have gotten through and picked up information through shady, less legal ways before quietly getting rid of the threat.

But Team Galactic was using Galactic Corporations as an excellent camouflage, and getting away with it. It was harder to track them when they couldn't figure out just what the Team wanted.

"Oh, look," Lucian said, head tilted up at the gray skies. Cynthia followed the direction of his gaze and saw –

"Is that snow?" she said, exasperated. The one good thing about coming down to Pastoria had been that there wasn't any snow in the city, being in the warmer parts of Sinnoh. Everywhere else was about knee-deep in snow already.

"Slushing, more like," Lucian said, and Cynthia groaned. She hated slush, that unholy mix of snow and rain.

The Head of the Elite Four and psychic expert pocketed his book, having read through it at least three times while scribbling things in its margins. "I'll see if we can get any further leads," Lucian offered, and Reagan bowed elegantly. "You go back and keep an eye on Pastoria. If they try anything again like the first time, you'll probably be more helpful."

Helpful. Right. With Gaia, Aeolus and Aphrodite's hatred of the cold, she was down to three Pokémon.

Cynthia looked at her friend and co-worker. "You sure you'll be alright?" she asked. He'd been straining himself in the last few days, desperately trying to force himself to catch a glimpse of the future. He acted fine, and was dressed and groomed as immaculately as usual, but she was pretty sure that behind his coloured lenses, his eyes would be bloodshot and have bags under them.

It used to be that he was extremely gifted, with a Sight that was unparalleled by any psychic in Sinnoh. That had been one of the reasons why he was offered a position – nearly conscripted – in the Elite Four, and given the position of the Head over Bertha (the older woman hadn't minded, and in fact insisted upon it. She really was a gracious woman).

And then, during their last investigation, while looking into a very twisted cult of Darkrai seeking to massacre people by the dozens at the very least in the name of their god, Lucian had somehow severely damaged his Sight. He now had almost no control over what he could See in the future, although he still maintained the ability to notice psychic or supernatural events around him in the present.

He waved his hand dismissively. "I'll have Aaron to guard my back. I'll be fine."

That did make it better. Aaron was probably the most sensible out of the (male members of the) Elite Four. He'd keep Lucian from overworking himself to the point of harm.

"Nothing illegal." Yet. Mind-cracking often left marks, and while Lucian was normally a master, he was exhausted, and one slip could break someone mentally.

_Would threatening to drop someone into Sharpedo-infested seas count as illegal_? Reagan's psychic 'voice' was far too innocent for his own good.

"Reagan," Lucian admonished his Gallade, looking too stern to be serious as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "You know I can't quite allow that in good consciousness. Legally."

The Gallade smirked. _What a shame. Legally._

Cynthia rolled her eyes at the playful mock-threats as Lucian adopted a smirk to mirror his Pokémon's. "Stop," she said. "The Sharpedo won't be in these seas for a while, it's too cold – you know that. Don't make trouble."

"Don't worry, mother," Lucian said, smile not quite gone from his face. "We won't cause any trouble. We'll be good boys."

The voice he did – the one where he pretended to be a little child – nearly did her in, and she had to fight to not burst out laughing. "If I'm the mother," she managed, "what does that make Bertha?"

"Gran-Gran, obviously," Lucian said with a shrug, and this time Cynthia did burst out laughing.

She stopped soon, remembering the problems she had to deal with, and sighed just as Lucian's phone buzzed. "Aaron," he said with a glance at the sender of the text. "He wants to know why I'm not there yet."

"Right. I'll let you get back to Aaron. Just don't get too distracted making out with each other," she teased, beginning to make her way back to Pastoria.

Behind her, she heard a faint sound of amusement. "Reagan, you traitor," Lucian's voice said mildly. "Just teleport me to Sunyshore already, you vile turncoat."

Reagan deliberately let her 'hear' his words. _Where your love awaits, Sir?_

Cynthia giggled, feeling a little less stressed. She could always count on her friends to cheer her up.

* * *

It was in a Pokémon Center where she was waiting to get her Pokémon back from the nurse's brief checkup that she ran into the young trainers Professor Rowan had entrusted with the Pokédex. The only ones of that age group, as far as she knew, unless the former Champion had decided to give more out.

Very unlikely. That man was more stubborn than a pack of Tauros put together.

"Hello," she said, before remembering that while she knew of them reasonably well due to Professor Rowan, they might not remember her so well. Oops.

Oh well, it was too late to avoid looking like a creepy person now. Best to go with the flow.

Luckily, Dawn and Barry recognized her. "Hey, you're Cynthia, right?" Barry asked, hair wild as ever.

She smiled in relief. "Yes. I'm surprised you remember me."

Dawn was the one who spoke this time. "You did give me a Pokémon egg," she pointed out.

"That I did." Cynthia paused. "Would you mind if I asked to see the Pokémon that hatched from it?"

Dawn fidgeted, and for a moment Cynthia panicked internally. Had she made the wrong choice with entrusting her to take care of the Togepi egg? If his child was being mistreated, Togekiss or not Aeolus would try to kill her. And he would probably succeed.

"Er, it hatched into a Togepi" – Cynthia braced herself for the worst – "but he kind of imprinted on Lucas, so he's with him now," Dawn finished, pointing at the third boy.

Oh. Well, that was a lot better than what she had been expected (eaten, dropped, cracked, thrown, stolen, sold, and the list went on and on and on). Cynthia relaxed, and turned to the third boy, the one she also recognized from talking with Professor Rowan. He was the one most likely to follow the path of an academic, and Professor Rowan said that he saw great things for this boy.

He fidgeted and blushed under her gaze, and she tried to smile reassuringly at the boy. "Lucas, right?" she asked, extending a hand to shake. "I've heard great things about you from the professor. It's nice to meet you in person."

Lucas perked up. "You know the professor?" he asked, eagerly shaking her hand. His grip was light, in comparison to some of the people she had met, but there was genuineness in his dark blue eyes, and boyish joy on his face.

It was like looking at her younger, more naïve self, back when she had idolized and all but worshipped Professor Rowan.

She nodded. "We keep in touch. Would you mind if I saw the Togepi?"

"Togetic," he blurted. At her quizzical look, he began digging in his pocket. "Cupid – that's his name – is a Togetic now. Dawn was the one who named him."

Impressive. Professor Rowan hadn't been kidding about seeing great things. Togepi were, despite their generally joyful natures, very picky. The only thing harder would have been to get the evolved forms to trust a human enough to breed.

Before he could release him, Cynthia suggested that they take this outside. "I'd like for Cupid to meet one of his parents, as well," she said, after picking up her Pokémon from the nurse when they were ready. Aeolus would be thrilled to see that his son was not only healthy, but had managed to evolve as well.

Lucas nodded, and once they were outside and out of the way for anybody that wanted to head inside the center, released a healthy Togetic. She looked over the cheerful fairy a few times, noticing how the white feathers were well-groomed and the general air of happiness he wore. Good.

She unclipped a luxury ball from her belt and released her Togekiss. "Aeolus," she said to the Togekiss, who roosted on the ground after crooning his arrival. Vain creature. "This is Cupid, your son."

The Togekiss cooed in joy, and Cupid, without hesitation, perked up happily.

"Wow!" Lucas dug out his Pokédex immediately and began scanning Aeolus. "Er," he said, suddenly remembering that Aeolus was a trained Pokémon, and that there were unspoken rules of etiquette regarding scanning Pokémon that didn't belong to him with the Pokédex. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all." Even if she constantly kept records of all her Pokémon, she knew the exciting feeling of scanning and registering Pokémon in the Pokédex.

While Lucas was busy with observing the two flying-types, Cynthia turned to Dawn. "You're a fan of myths and legends, right?" she asked for clarification.

Dawn nodded eagerly.

"Have you ever been to Celestic Town?"

Celestic, along with Eterna, Snowpoint, Canalave and a few other settlements, had their roots in what was arguably Sinnoh's greatest time – the age of the Iron Queens. Priestesses of Dialga who were said to have been given her blessing so that while in battle, they were like avatars of the time goddess themselves, able to match not only men in strength, but also Pokémon. One every generation would rise to the title, and wield a spear tipped with a diamond in battle, a partner at her side as she led the Iron Army into victory.

It was the Iron Queens that had united the cold land into what was now commonly known as Sinnoh, from small chunks of territories ruled by petty self-claimed princes and dukes, who were really just warlords in all but name.

Celestic was small, but for a good reason. It had been a place of worship, a place for priestesses and priests who weren't of high enough status to set foot in the sacralised Spear Pillars, but dedicated in their own right.

Due to its size and relative less worth compared to larger conquests like Eterna, as well as its geographical location – hidden in the dense fogs, backed by harsh mountains, a nut hard to crack – Celestic had escaped being run over by invading forces from Imperial Kanto when the last Iron Queen Katarina died, leaving Sinnoh without an Iron Queen to take the diamond spear for the first time since uniting.

Because it had been ignored, Celestic had the best preserved ruins and relics in Sinnoh. Kanto hadn't managed to plunder or destroy anything within Celestic's boundaries. Even now, there existed temples dating back from the ages of the Iron Queen, statues and figurines made out of valuable metal that hadn't been stolen by invaders, and museums dedicated to protecting records about the time.

Basically, a sacred land of sorts for any myth or history nut in Sinnoh.

"Only once," Dawn said, vaguely remembering a trip to the Celestic Museum of Sinnoh History with both her parents back when her dad had been alive. The only thing she really remembered was her dad giving her a piggy-back ride the whole time because she hadn't wanted to walk.

Cynthia dug out her wallet, and took out a folded piece of paper too narrow, stiff and colourful to be a bill. "Well, there's a small tournament Celestic's holding, but you can only compete if you have a ticket. They gave me one, since I'm the Elder's granddaughter, but I won't be able to make it."

As Champion, she wasn't allowed to go out and compete in any official tournaments. Professor Rowan had been the one to implement this rule for future 'Hidden Champions' back when he'd temporarily taken over, before she and her team had managed to beat him.

While Cynthia severely disliked that rule, she did – grudgingly – see the logic behind it. If they ever decided to go public with her identity, then there was room for critique, allowing the possibility of people having problems with her having competed while hiding the fact that she was the Eighteenth Champion of Sinnoh. That wouldn't do well for her.

Each year after becoming Champion she felt bad about the ticket Celestic Town somehow felt obligated to send her. She usually pushed for her younger sister to compete instead, but as Camilla got older and still had only two badges – which she had earned to round out her resume – she was resisting the idea more and more, complaining that it was embarrassing for her to battle younger trainers. Win or lose, Camilla still felt embarrassed about her opponents often being a lot shorter and younger than she was.

But here was someone who could – would – do well, and fill in the spots. It was a pretty small-scale tournament, often lasting only two days, with ranks sometimes having to be merged due to low numbers. "Would you like to go?"

Dawn nodded so hard Cynthia worried that her head would fall off. "Thank you!" she cried, wrapping Cynthia in a tight hug before letting her go and taking the ticket she offered with a gleeful look.

"I'd offer you one as well," she added to Barry, "but I'm afraid I only have one, and it's not a very important tournament. I just suggested it because I thought she might like seeing Celestic again."

Barry waved off the concern. "It's all good," he said, and took a peek at the ticket in Dawn's hand. "When is that? Early February? So after your birthday, Dawn. It'll be pretty cold, so I'll probably still be at home, nice and warm."

Cynthia smiled, and then she saw Detective Koya from Interpol, waiting at the entrance with his hands in his black trench coat's pocket. "I'm sorry," she said, taking out the luxury ball again. "But I've got to get going now. It was nice seeing you all again, and pleasant to finally meet you, Lucas."

They all chirped their goodbyes to her, and she let Aeolus bid his son farewell before returning the Togekiss and walking over to the detective from Interpol.

"Ms. Prentiss," he said blandly. He was one of the few who, outside of secured League personnel, knew about her identity as Champion. It had been out of necessity, so that she could properly give and get information to and from Interpol quickly enough. He had taken it well.

"Detective Koya."

He led her to a more private place where they wouldn't be overheard, where he debriefed her on everything that had happened, such as Team Galactic having gotten away by not only causing a huge panic with the Marsh's Pokémon, but also having some of their people dressed as officers around to safely extract the best likely suspect. And Cynthia froze out every last bit of the young woman that had been smiling and laughing, and donned the stone-faced mask of the hidden Eighteenth Champion of Sinnoh so she could deal with it.

* * *

Dawn stretched, once Cynthia had left. "Well," she said. "Now that we're done here, I better get home."

It felt odd saying that. Going home. She was going home. She had set off months ago with Neptune, a Piplup at her side, and now she was heading back as the snow fell, more than a full team of Pokémon, Neptune evolved in his final form, five gym badges to her name.

It felt like it had all gone by so quickly, and yet, looking back, Dawn thought that she had come pretty far.

"So soon?" Barry made a face.

"Winter's coming," Dawn reminded him. "I don't want to be stuck out in winter. I don't even have a fire-type!"

"I do."

"You also have Champ. Are you going to let him freeze to death?"

Barry shrugged. "He's tough, don't underestimate him."

Dawn resisted the urge to flick his forehead. "He's got a quad weakness to ice! It's stupid to just drag him along in winter! Just go home, Barry!"

As they mock-bickered and then let the argument about what a sensible time to head back to Twinleaf was degenerate into, somehow, a fierce, unorganized debate about whether Neptune or Champ was stronger, Lucas laughed.

Outside, the wet snow that had been practically slush hurtling down to the ground was slowing down as actual flakes began falling. When they fell, they lost their white colour as they mixed with the dirt to form dirty, cold slush on the ground, but even then, the skies continued to let snow fall.

Winter was finally reaching out with its cold fingers to the last of Sinnoh, defeating even the warmer air of the southern cities.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Neptune (Empoleon), Sekhmet (Luxray), Themis (Golbat), Helios (Gallade), Frejya (Lopunny), Medusa (Tangrowth)

_Home:_ Faith (Eevee)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash),

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: I am so sorry for the late update. There was a major blackout in the entire community I live in over the weekend, and when that finally got solved and I got my wifi back, fanfiction wouldn't let me log on for some reason.

But ohmygoodness you wonderful reviwers you guys really made my month thank you :)

Honeycombs on soft ice cream does taste pretty good.

Arthur the Ace Trainer is an NPC in Victory Road, his team comes from DP. Detective Koya from Interpol is a character in a manga based on DP. I've made him older here but I needed an Interpol character that wasn't Looker, and he fit the bill. Out of one man is not the International Police made, Pokémon.

Originally Dawn was supposed to confront the bomber, but Lucas deserved more love so he and Barry got to be the heroes here.

We're finally leaving Pastoria! If you've been paying attention, you should probably be able to guess where Dawn's going next, although if you're able to guess the identities of some of the characters appearing, then I need to invest in tin-foiling my house (Imperator Justinian, I am looking at you, I swear you're secretly psychic).


	26. Let's Get This Party Started

A.S.107

October 21st 

_I think the best way to say it would be that this party was the most memorable one Mom ever took me to._

* * *

They all went to eat out at a popular pizza place for dinner to celebrate Neptune's evolution and Dawn winning the Marsh Badge, and also to give Lucas and Barry something good to eat to make up for the stress they had suffered.

Late into the night, they talked and laughed while their Pokémon enjoyed themselves in the Pokémon eating room. Dawn laughed even harder when she heard that Barry had roped Lucas into training with him.

"He's a fun guy to train with," Barry declared after slurping down his second glass of pinap flavoured soda. "He's pretty smart and knows a lot of stuff, so I learned a lot. He's got to learn how to think on his feet more, though."

"He runs a _lot_," Lucas said, sounding slightly traumatized as he wiped his slightly greasy fingers on his napkin. "I think I've been dragged into running an hour every day, at the very _least_."

"And, you know, it's nice to have our teams spar together," Barry continued, not paying the slightest attention to what Lucas was saying about him one seat over to the left. "He has more special attackers and different types, so it's nice to give my Pokémon some more experience dealing with diverse foes."

"His team is just as crazy as he is," Lucas said flatly, eyes looking slightly dead at the memories that floated up in his mind. "Starling dive-bombed Charlotte to see if he could push through having fire in his face. Without warning her. While she was eating. On break. And he never once realized just what was wrong about his actions. Neither did anyone else on his team, actually."

"We should train together over the winter," Barry concluded, leaning back after snatching up the last slice of pizza from the round, flat tray. He spread pepper flakes liberally on the slice before biting into it, and then frowned before dashing some more on top. "It'll really help. Just because it's cold doesn't mean it's time to go to rest, you know?"

Lucas glared at the slice of flaky pizza in Barry's hand, having been too late to grab the last slice before the other boy got to it. "But it's been good," he admitted, cradling his water. He had chosen to make the healthy choice regarding their drinks. "And training over winter together would be great, if you guys don't mind. I'm not a competitive trainer, but my team and I are still going to need to know how to defend ourselves in case of an emergency, and – Dawn, why are you laughing?"

Dawn tried to answer, but the constant giggles kept her from speaking, so she held up a hand and continued to cackle quietly, nearly bent in her efforts to laugh quietly. "Sorry," she managed at last. "It's just – pft!" She fell into another fit of giggles.

Lucas glanced at Barry, questioning her sanity.

"Eh," said Barry, finishing off the last slice. "She'll be fine. Hey, should we order another one?"

Lucas eyed the three empty pans. "Let's not. I think it's time for dessert."

That idea was popular, and so they packed up their Pokémon and paid for their meal – splitting the bill in three – before leaving the restaurant.

"I vote ice cream," Lucas said as they stepped out through the doors. Barry barrelled through, but Lucas held the door open for a family of four that wanted some dinner together.

"Ice cream in winter?" Dawn asked, shivering slightly. To keep the cold air from seeping in, she tightened her scarf around her neck, and then pulled a bit over the lower part of her face. Better.

"The best time to have ice cream," Lucas protested.

Barry, of the belief that there was no wrong time for ice cream – or food, really – voted for it as well, and Dawn followed along, outnumbered. If she caught a cold, well, she was heading home, so there wouldn't be much problems or suffering.

* * *

"That's a beautiful dress," the saleswoman said.

Johanna nodded politely, but waved away the pink dress nonetheless. "I'm thinking of something less pink," she said. Dawn looked good in pink, but this wasn't a place where pink would be advantageous. In a different setting, Dawn in pink might have given her the ideal armour, but on this battlefield she needed something more delicate. Something that could get the subtle job done.

Besides, that cut was just horrible. No child should have had to wear clothes as revealing as that.

"Well, does your daughter have a specific colour she likes?"

Dawn had never been one for a favourite colour. She had inherited Johanna's fashion sense, and raw as it was from underuse, it still carried her a long way in coordinating her clothes. "Maybe a blue shade," Johanna began, when her eyes caught on a particular article of clothing she hadn't noticed till now. "Oh, that's gorgeous."

The saleswoman turned to see where Johanna was looking, and was eager to agree. "It's not the latest in season, but it's definitely a classic look – never gets old."

And it was the right size as well. She'd seen Dawn's size during the contest when they went shopping for a new dress. That blue dress had been pretty as well, but, well, Dawn _did_ need some new clothes for a more formal setting, and this one was perfect.

"I'll take it," she said.

* * *

It was definitely great coming home. Themis had never been to Twinleaf, so it took them a while to fly to major cities until they reached Jubilife, and then some more nudging and slow flying through the chilly air took them to the edge of her hometown where they landed without any problems.

"Great flying, Themis," Dawn told her, patting her side. Themis panted, exhausted at her first attempt at long-distance flying, but grinned at her with fangs. Dawn handed her a sour Pokétreat, and then returned her before walking through Twinleaf's familiar streets towards home.

When she arrived in front of her house, she rang the doorbell. Her house key was buried somewhere deep in her bag, and she felt a little too lazy to dig it out so she could let herself in.

The door opened, and Dawn found herself looking at Jackie. "Hey," she said to the Medicham.

Jackie nearly knocked her over as she threw her thin but powerful arms around her in a fierce hug. "I missed you too," she said, hugging back.

"Jackie? Is that Dawn?" her mom's voice, along with the sound of some upbeat music, came faintly from the basement where the 'yoga studio' was.

"Hi Mom!" she called. "I'm home!"

Dawn heard the sound of nails scratching against the wooden floor as Faith came barreling towards her. Behind her, Selene hurried along.

"Hey guys!" She made sure to hug Faith and Selene, and give a few elaborate high fives without fumble to Jumpy, who nodded in satisfaction once she had completed them successfully.

Her mom, in a tank top and shorts, came up from downstairs. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she was wiping the sweat off her face and neck with a towel. So, she had come home just as her mom was finishing off her daily routine.

"So you found your way home," Johanna said with a smile. "I thought for sure you'd get lost in Twinleaf on the way back."

Dawn groaned. "That was years ago! And it was just once, anyways."

Laughing, Johanna slung her towel around her neck. "I missed you," said her mom.

She didn't care that her mom was covered in sweat. Dawn threw her arms around her mom and hugged her hard. "I missed you too," she replied.

"Careful, I'm all covered in sweat." Johanna kissed the top of her head, and then unwrapped Dawn's arms from around her. "And you missed me? That's why you called me so often, right?"

"Exactly," Dawn said cheekily without shame.

Johanna rolled her eyes, but she still had a wide smile on her face.

* * *

The days after returning home went by quickly. She and her Pokémon went out for runs and practice sessions, although after Frejya nearly knocked over a tree at the edge of Twinleaf while practicing her punches, they decided that they should be a little more careful.

"Since Medusa's pretty bulky defensively, you could spar with her," Dawn suggested to the Lopunny, who was hunkering and slouching into her large ears in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. "Medusa can take hits easily, so it should be fine. And Frejya's fast, so it should help you get used to quick opponents."

Her Tangrowth, who had mellowed out considerably since evolving, happily agreed, and the two of them went off to spar, Frejya peppering her with swift punches and Medusa swinging her arms to block them.

Themis and Helios also made good partners challenging each other, with Helios using his psychic powers to keep the Golbat on her toes and Themis lashing back with her powerful wings to counter him. It was particularly funny for everyone else when Helios, in a moment of creativity, decided to teleport right above Themis and drop on her back.

Startled, Themis very nearly dropped out of the sky like a rock with Helios on her back, but managed to continue flying while struggling to knock him off. For a few minutes, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as she tried to buck the Gallade off of her like a Tauros trying to shake off a determined cowboy at a rodeo show. Dawn would have sworn that Sekhmet and Medusa were making bets on who would come out on top.

Themis soon figured out that the best way to get unwanted passengers trying to hook up a ride was with a confuse ray and some severely disorienting aerial work. After being flashed by the sentient light, Helios fell from her back, confused and seriously dizzy, and it was only luck that he was close to the ground when that happened.

"That seems like good practice," Dawn said when he got up to his feet. "But let's save that for when we can practice in a safer place. I'd rather not see you break your neck."

Helios nodded, and then went back to using psycho cut to snipe from the ground at Themis.

And then, there was Neptune and Sekhmet. For a while now, her two earliest Pokémon had been at odds, and it had driven Dawn nuts.

Now, though, after Neptune evolved, he was far calmer. He was still determined when practicing and liked sour food as usual, but now there was an air of collectedness about him. He was still pretty proud, but it was more tempered, and in a quiet way. He now no longer lashed out at any perceived provocations to his pride or honour, instead judging everything with a cool eye like it was beneath him.

He had matured.

Even when Sekhmet zapped him during training, there were no more outraged squawks that led to arguments that would degenerate to fights. The Luxray now treated him more like an equal, and although the two of them hadn't suddenly turned into the best of friends like Themis and Faith, they still had a strong partnership.

Dawn liked that just fine. Even if sometimes, the two of them stopped their teamwork to argue with each other on what to do. Discussion led to better ideas, right?

Sekhmet shoved Neptune into a tree, and while he didn't fly into an outrage, he retaliated by splashing her mane with a brine attack, knowing very well that brine would stiffen her hair with salt residue and make it more difficult to care for.

. . . Right.

But strength wasn't all they had to work on. For the upcoming coordinator party her mom was taking her to, they had to work on their presentation and control as well.

"Right," Dawn said, staring down at a notebook's blank page. At the very top, she had written 'Party', but she wasn't sure what else to write. "So. Coordinating party."

Seven pairs of eyes stared at her blankly. While some of them had seen the practicing they had gone through for a contest – and, in Neptune's case, even participated in one – they weren't quite sure about thinking of moves and combinations in terms of making them beautiful or showy as well as effective.

They were even more confused when Dawn told them that the moves didn't have to be at full strength, and their priority should be that the results were appealing in some way.

Dawn took a deep breath and tried to organize all of it in a way easy for her Pokémon to grasp. She didn't blame them for being confused – their primary interest had been in battling. That meant getting the most out of the least energy spent. That meant taking their foe down through quiet planning and surprises.

Taking them through flaunty, showy ways that their opponents could see coming would feel . . . weird.

While using the skills of Pokémon for entertainment instead of battling or survival had been around for a long time, the term 'coordinating' hadn't come into being until around half a century ago.

Back when the Kantonese Empire had colonized a good chunk of the world and created an empire on which the sun would not set upon, the lords sent to watch over those colonies would often bring entertainers from their home in Kanto, and then have the arts be taught so they could enjoy their life ruling over the territories. This led to a mix in Kantonese arts with the native culture of the colonies, such as the idea of battling artfully where points would be given for a more appealing move rather than a practical, blunt force of power.

But when the Commonwealth had been dissolved after Kanto began losing its power and its colonies began rebelling, the newly freed regions like Hoenn and Sinnoh had sought to rediscover and firmly establish their origins and own culture, which had been shadowed and distorted by Kanto's efforts to control them.

One of the efforts made had been to revitalize the arts, which allowed entertainers to continue to make a living. Some of Kanto's influences were kept, as over the centuries of Kantonese rule their mark had been left behind, but these efforts sought to revitalize what made the regions special and unique.

The result was Contests. Entertainers would be brought to demonstrate their skills in planning and leading Pokémon through a series of moves that would entrance the audience and keep the spirit of their home alive. To give incentive, prizes would be given to the performers judged best.

Sinnoh and Hoenn were known especially as the Two Great Birthplaces of Contests and Coordinating. The two countries had developed contests, but had done so completely separately.

They were similar in many ways, but unique and different in just as many others. Hoenn placed more importance in the skill of a single Pokémon, and emphasized the Pokémon's natural beauty, seeking to draw out and enhance it through the Pokémon's efforts alone. Some contests would have stages where the Pokémon was simply to pose – to demonstrate not only composure and control, but also allow viewers to notice their well-groomed state and natural appearance.

Sinnoh, on the other hand, sought to bolster the Pokémon's attractiveness through the use of items, or dance skills on top of what moves the Pokémon could use skillfully. Their focus was on how a Pokémon could grow more appealing through interactions with a human. These weren't Pokémon in the wild – they were well-trained ones. The Sinnohan logic was that therefore, there should be something to make them stand out from others of their species. A more human touch, so to speak.

Now most styles were being combined into a fusion to get the best of all worlds – the coordinating world, like all other frontiers, had gone international – but terms like 'Sinnohan' or 'Hoennian' were still used to refer to specific coordinating styles.

Hoenn was the first to officialise coordinating and make contests a part of the League, providing legislation, funding and official League backing. Sinnoh followed on in AS52, when the First Sinnoh Champion formed the Sinnoh League at Lily of the Valley Castle. That year, Sinnoh not only created the Sinnoh League, but also an association for Sinnohan contests – the Sinnoh Contest Association.

The flourishing ages of these two, however, didn't come until nearly two decades later. Like Pokémon battling, coordinating didn't really become a 'big thing' in Sinnoh until the seventies, when television became more common in households and got better quality. Suddenly, trainers and coordinators gained fanbases, admirers who knew not only their names, but also their Pokémon's. More and more people became interested in Pokémon, and the system grew bigger and bigger with more support until the League system was integral in society not just as a way to defend it, but also as a method of entertainment that became a key business worth billions.

And leading the rise of coordinating in the world from the young age of ten had been her mom. She had been, from the start of the surge of public interest in coordinating, one of the most famous coordinators.

Unlike other child stars, however, she never went off the deep end or got into trouble with the police or drugs. Johanna Steele had come from a family of iron will who had produced the First Sinnoh Champion, and while she was a gifted, dedicated coordinator, she was also a very shrewd businesswoman and knew how to handle her stress and work. She delegated, hired managers and agents who would look out for her, and did her own thing. She didn't follow trends – she set them, becoming a pioneer in the frontier that was Pokémon Coordination. From the start, Johanna had Sinnoh wrapped around her finger, and this didn't change as she grew older. Other stars faded, or began to lose the public's interest, but not her.

Instead, she matured, gained more experience, and became even better, staying original and masterful. Soon, Johanna's name wasn't just a household one in Sinnoh, but internationally known as well. She not only coordinated, but also acted in movies and television shows, and even modelled a few times. It was joked that despite being a Steele, she had the Golden Touch – everything she did was a success. People loved her performances, but also the Johanna Steele as a person. Her charm, her natural grace and soothing beauty were all points in her favour. She didn't make headlines through scandals. She kept a clean lifestyle, and then proceeded to still be famous for being talented.

At the age of twenty six, she had won three Sinnohan Ribbon Cups – the equivalent of entering and winning a Regional Conference for the coordinating world – and three more in other countries, setting a record that had yet to be beaten by any Sinnohan Coordinator. After that, she was politely asked by the Sinnohan Coordinating Association to stop competing in Ribbon Cups so as to give others a chance. She retreated gracefully, instead entering smaller contests, or appearing as special guests or judges in events.

She also mentored a number of talented coordinators and Pokémon into achieving their full potential, and more than one survey had found her to be the biggest influence for coordinators around the world. One year, she ranked twenty seventh on the list of most influential women in the world, beating other candidates that had made the list like Johto's only female Champion Tamara Pierce and former Elite Four Bertha Rowan.

By the time she was thirty, Johanna had a line of Pokémon accessories named after her, two albums, several movies and shows she had appeared in, and more awards than she could count. It had made news and brought forth a lot of speculation when she chose to marry, of all people, a man who worked as a financial lawyer for one of the Steele Group's rival companies.

From the stories Johanna told to Dawn about her father, he was apparently a man who didn't like numbers – something Dawn could relate to all-too-easily – but still became a financial lawyer because he was good at law, research and reading. He was an orphan, raised at an orphanage run by a temple of Azelf in Sunyshore, but had been very determined, and managed to get a good education and become a lawyer with his people skills.

"But he wasn't a very good businessman," Johanna had said wryly. "Which is why he pretty much became an over-glorified accountant. His words, not mine," she had added at Dawn's frown.

While there had been speculation that he was only a gold digger seeking higher prestige, Johanna insisted that the marriage had been one of love. "He didn't even know how famous I was until a month after we started dating, when we got found and mobbed by the paparazzi. He wasn't much for television," she had said. "Or, well, anything Pokémon-related, really. He only really got more into Pokémon after he met me, and even then, he never did have an interest in training Pokémon, even if he got along with them well enough."

Still, he had to prove to Johanna's family that he wasn't just seeking to climb social ladders by using her. He resigned from his job at the rival company and transferred to a lower-paying, less prestigious one at Steele Group, married into the family – taking on the Steele name – and was coldly treated by Johanna's brother and cousins for a good few years until Johanna had put her foot down and chewed them all out for their horrible treatment of her husband.

"He always had a way of looking at the bright side, even through all that," Johanna had said, shaking her head slightly in fond exasperation. "Saying things like, 'Well, I never did have a family, so I'm glad that another one's willing to adopt me, even if I'm a bit old now.' Only that man could make light of being an orphan and being forced to take on another name."

Even after marriage, Johanna's activities hadn't stopped. It was only after she became pregnant and successfully gave birth to Dawn at the age of thirty four that she became less active, focusing more on her family.

But her influence remained. She still had friends and students who were active, and she kept in touch with everyone in the industry. They called her in for guest judging, special performances or appearances, occasional speeches and even just to 'hang out'.

This party was one of those events to 'hang out' at, although using that term to describe a fancy dinner at a billionaire's mansion seemed to be . . . understating things a bit.

"I'll be leaving everyone else behind," Johanna said, talking about her own Pokémon. "Otherwise someone is going to try and get me to demonstrate, and I'd really rather not. This is a night for the young to shine, not for old timers to come and hog their spotlight."

She did, however, encourage Dawn to take some of her Pokémon. "Not the full team," she had said. "But a few that you know can behave themselves, and be both strong enough to show how you're a great trainer, but also skilled enough to pull off appeals. I think four is a good number."

Johanna had recommended Faith. While the Eevee still remained more interested in battling than coordinating – as was proven when Selene joined in and she didn't – she was still well-behaved, and was more than capable of thinking up ways to be tricky and demonstrate how clever she was.

And, of course, she was an Eevee. That alone got her racks of points in the cuteness department.

The question was who else to take.

"Okay," she said at last. "Who wants to go? It's a party, but you'll probably have to stay in your balls until the people want to see you. They might try to pet you and touch you, or even talk about you right in your face like you're not even there. You also have to behave, and demonstrate being pretty or cool or cute when asked to."

Perhaps that was putting it too negatively? "I'll try to get you guys food. Hopefully it'll be the good stuff, but . . . ." But her mom had made her brush up on her formal dining etiquette. "No guarantees," she finished lamely. "Don't feel like you have to attend."

Helios volunteered, as did Frejya. Both of them, Dawn thought as she nodded and wrote their names down, would be good. Helios was always well-mannered – and female psychic Pokémon seemed to adore him – so he would be a good choice, and Frejya was naturally beautiful. Her stoic and gutsy nature would be great for a surprising tough spin if needed.

The remaining four Pokémon that had not yet volunteered consulted among themselves. Neptune didn't seem too willing to go, and he was in a quiet talk with Sekhmet. Medusa was sullen for the first time since evolving, having reverted to her habit of hunching in on herself. Except now she had arms to cross around her body, making it more like she was huddling. Themis perched on Medusa's head, and although Faith looked cheerful, the usually smiling Golbat looked less enthused. Out of all Dawn's Pokémon, she had been the one to have the most reluctance with 'appealing' moves.

Since Themis didn't have difficulty with putting together several moves and manoeuvres while in battle – and make the feats look incredible – Dawn assumed that it was because the Golbat hated the idea of having to put on a performance for an audience and then be judged for it. She didn't blame her for feeling that way, and decided to not pressure her.

But who to take? She needed to know early so she could let their sheen grow better through poffins, and practice their appeals. Demonstrations were a definite at the party, and while she knew coordinating wasn't the path for her, she didn't want to come up short, especially given who her mom was.

"C'mon guys," she whined. "Any volunteers?"

* * *

"You do it," Sekhmet said to Neptune immediately when Dawn pled for the last volunteer.

Had it been Neptune before his final evolution, the Luxray knew he would have bristled at the order she gave him. Now, he simply shook his head. "I refuse."

"Damn it, Neptune." Sekhmet nearly bared her fangs in frustration, but to do so would be to let him win, and give him higher ground. "You've done it before. That contest thing, remember? You got that weird badge thing."

"It was a ribbon," Neptune corrected her coolly. "And yes, I do remember. I just don't wish to do it."

"Don't tell me you're scared," she jabbed verbally.

Once, that would have been enough to have him flying into her face with an outraged squawk. Now, he just rolled his eyes.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," he said dryly, making Sekhmet rear back. _What_ had he just said?

Okay, it was official – evolution was just making him weird.

"Why don't you go, Sekhmet?" Faith asked as she tried to figure out whether she had been just insulted.

"Me?!" Sekhmet made a face. "You're kidding, right?"

But Faith shook her head. "I think you'd be great at being tough or cool," she said. "You've got that intimidate, so right away, everyone's going to be like, oh wow, this one's a real toughie! But then you have this awesome roar like, rawr!" Faith gave her attempted interpretation of Sekhmet's battle cry, and it came out endearingly, even to Sekhmet, who normally thought 'cute' was unnecessary. No wonder Dawn wanted her in for the cute part of these shenanigans.

Faith wasn't done. "And when you use your charge-spark combo you glow, so you'd be really cool! Maybe Dawn can teach you flash or something, or even just have you use leer while you glow. Wouldn't that be something to see?"

"She's right."

Sekhmet started slightly. She had thought Themis and Medusa would be busy talking to each other, trying to pawn off the duty of going.

Medusa adjusted her body carefully so that Themis, roosting on her head, wouldn't pitch off. "Electric moves always make a good impression because they're flashy, and you have excellent control over yours," the Tangrowth said briskly. She wasn't much for giving compliments, Sekhmet knew that, so for her to say this was . . .

Well, it was something, alright.

"The sight of a Luxray alone would be helpful to Dawn," Neptune added his two cents. Sekhmet smacked his foot with her tail, but he ignored her. Damn his new typing. "They'd see and know she's a highly skilled trainer."

Themis grinned widely. "It's settled, then," the Golbat said smugly, looking relieved that she wasn't the one being cornered. "You're going."

Sekhmet began to bristle, but Faith jumped in between her and the rest of them. "Great!" the Eevee yipped.

Helios and Frejya joined in as well. "Sekhmet will be coming?" Helios asked, soft smile on his face. "Splendid. It reassures me to know that you'll be there with us."

Frejya just patted her back, and stayed silent, but Sekhmet received the message loud and clear. There was no arguing.

"Fine," she bit out. "But I'm eating all the sour poffins Dawn makes."

Only that statement could have made Themis, Faith and Neptune all blanch simultaneously in stunned silence for a moment before breaking out into loud protests. Good to know that some things could still get an outraged reaction out of Neptune.

* * *

Up until the day of the party, Dawn and her Pokémon trained, raising sheen through a diet packed with poffins and creating flashy techniques befitting any appeal battles. Her mom's Pokémon had helped, giving pointers and occasionally even demonstrating. Jackie took Helios in like she had Selene, and taught him how to pull proper punches after squawking in outrage over seeing his form with rock smash. She even bothered to tutor him with the elemental punches, which Dawn was thankful for. Not only did they look pretty, but they'd also help with battle.

"Can you hold both at the same time?" Dawn asked him as he demonstrated first a fire punch, and then an ice punch.

Helios tried, but ended up holding neither. He frowned, concentrating even harder, but still, neither element covered his fists.

"It's okay if you can't," Dawn backtracked when it looked like he was about to lose his control and end up hurting himself. The elemental punches were skills that required having the elements fire, ice or electricity encasing the fist used to punch, but there was a special protective force that needed to be put around the fist itself so as to not end up burning, freezing or shocking the user. Jackie, being the expert she was, had taught him ice punch first so it would be easiest for him to recover from the damage. Only once he had fully mastered ice punch had she moved onto thunder, and then fire punch. "It's something only masters can do, because those are opposing elements and all."

Jackie demonstrated her mastery by simply holding up both slender gray arms, one encased in freezing, glistening energy and the other not burning despite being wrapped in fire.

Dawn gave her a look. She wasn't helping.

Frejya frowned, and then held up two different punches – fire and thunder.

"That's great!" Dawn told her warmly. Frejya had apparently become friendly with Jumpy in the times she had spent with Johanna, and when Jackie had begun to teach Helios, the Kangaskhan had taken it upon herself to teach her fellow normal-type the elemental punches. She just hoped the two tutors wouldn't pass down their 'friendly' rivalries to their students as well. "Helios, let's try thunder and fire together."

Those two were more similar to each other, needing to pull up a force around their fists to protect from heated elements, and so easier to do at the same time. Helios managed to pull them up himself after a brief moment of concentration. Like Frejya, in one hand he held crackling golden lightning, while the other fisted a flaring fireball.

"Awesome, both of you," she told them sincerely. They were both making great progress. Even Jackie, the perpetual perfectionist, grudgingly admitted that they had done great so far. She did, however, clap her hands and make a shooing motion, making it clear that they better get back to practicing.

Dawn thought it said much for both Helios and Frejya's patience that they didn't run away from the picky Medicham.

Frejya also had to practice smiling. While normally, her stoic, blank look that had earned her the nickname of 'ice queen' from Barry did well in battle to throw off any foes that expected some kind of reaction, in an appeals battle they wanted something a little more . . . expressive.

So while she rested, Frejya held a small handheld mirror in front of her and practiced smiling. Johanna occasionally sat down with her to give tips on how she should hold her head at a certain angle for maximum effect, or avoid certain actions.

Figuring that her mom was the expert on smiling, especially for an audience, Dawn let them handle it on their own.

Faith was also doing remarkably well.

"Use swift, around yourself."

The Eevee concentrated as she fired the rays of golden stars, but instead of simply flying off to hit the target, they spun in a starry hurricane, lighting up the immediate area and making her the eye of the small storm.

That was pretty – and maybe it would make for a decent counter shield in battle – but Dawn wanted to see if she could make it something more. "Can you aim up so they'll converge on top of your head?"

At the self-doubting tone in her voice, Faith shot her an impatient look and cocked her head at an angle, like she was telling her to try again.

"Right," Dawn said, and this time said it with more confidence. "Have them all converge above your head!"

The swift attack spun upwards, and they smashed into each other, breaking into sparkles of light.

"Nicely done," Dawn said, and discreetly snuck Faith a sour Pokétreat. "Shh."

Faith gobbled it down before the others noticed and purred happily before prancing off.

And then, there was Sekhmet. Right from the start, the 'cute' option had been discarded for her, as the Luxray refused to even consider it. Beauty, she argued with her Pokémon for a good while, but in the end had to give up, as Sekhmet refused to give even an inch.

That left smart, cool and tough. Sekhmet hadn't minded portraying 'tough', or 'cool'. Being 'smart', she seemed more reluctant on.

So that was left to Helios, who chivalrously agreed.

"Charge, and then roar!"

Sekhmet glowed and sparked as she charged up, and then Dawn braced herself when she straightened her back and let out a roar to shake the very earth.

Roar when used by Sekhmet in normal times was scary and intimidating enough. Roar, backed with a mane streaked with electric sparks, glowing golden eyes and claws crackling menacingly was a sight to take her breath away in awe.

When she had finished her intimidating but incredible performance, Sekhmet tossed her head lightly, but continued to hold herself regally. She gave Dawn a look as if to say, 'well?'

Dawn had to flounder to find her ability to speak again. "You sure you don't want to do beauty?"

Sekhmet bared her fangs in distaste and let loose a low grumble of dissent.

"Alright, if you say so." Dawn stroked her mane back down. The charge had raised the thick dark blue hair up on edge so Sekhmet looked even bigger than she was, and she felt the slight sting of static on her fingertips as she stroked them back down.

They had this.

* * *

An hour before the party's start, Dawn took a shower and dried off before slipped into the dress her mom had bought for the occasion.

She hadn't wanted to look too young, because that tended to mean the adults didn't take her seriously enough. And she had enough of a handicap already with her less than average height. She didn't need any more help in looking too childish. That meant no frills or bows or excess of ribbons.

At the same time, she didn't want to wear something that was too mature or revealing. Not only would that make her mom look bad, but that also meant no one would take her seriously, writing her off as a child too eager to be an adult.

Her mom knew all of this, which was why she had picked out the perfect dress – a simple white flare dress with a beige ribbon tied into a bow at the back. There was even a pocket, deep enough for her to put her four Poké balls in without them sticking out too much.

Good thing too, because the clutch purse she was taking was way too small for her to put anything else in after she had managed to stuff a hyper potion bottle into it. Just in case.

"Stylish, and subtle," Johanna said approvingly. She then brushed Dawn's hair out so it was loose and slinky around her instead of being pinned with her usual hair clips, and added only a little makeup. "Since you're not a coordinator, you shouldn't try to look like one. Instead, show your own talents."

Dawn saw what she meant about 'looking like one' when her students came. This year, Johanna had chosen to take three of her students with her – a large number for her. Usually she only took one.

And she normally took in lots of different types of coordinators. Johanna never discriminated with a certain style, always seeking for talent, hard work and enthusiasm. And since she was talented and could fit virtually any style of coordinating, she could actually get away with being a mentor to so many diverse young coordinators.

There were two girls and a boy in this year's students. The boy, who looked two years older than Dawn, was dressed in a flamboyant suit-like costume that made him look like he was playing the part of a prince in a theatre production. He kept touching his dark auburn hair nervously, until the taller of the two girls slapped his hand away to make him stop.

The taller girl looked around the same age as the boy. She was more boyish, with her red hair cropped short – but stylish, definitely stylish. Instead of going the traditional route and wearing a dress, she had chosen to wear a stylized light blue suit with a white evening cape. The intricate embroidery on her clothes, however, made up for her lack of jewelry, and she would definitely stand out.

The last girl looked like she was around Dawn's age – and she was _really_ pretty, like a princess. Her turquoise hair was wavy around her doll-like face, pinned by a barrette to the side, and her tiered knee-length dress was a dark indigo that reminded Dawn of a star-filled night sky.

"Dawn, this is Zoey, Kenny and Lisia," Johanna introduced them, pointing to each. "And Zoey, Kenny, Lisia, this is Dawn, my daughter."

Zoey was the first to approach. "Hi," she said, extending a hand to shake. Dawn took it, and found her grip to be firm and confident but not painful. "Nice to meet you in person at last."

"Nice to meet you too," Dawn replied. "I hope my mom's not driving you crazy."

Zoey laughed. "Nah, she's great. It's an honour working with her."

Dawn gave her mom a very pointed look. "I can kick her out of the room and you can be honest with me, if you want," she joked.

Zoey's smile grew wider.

"I'm Kenny," the only boy in the group introduced himself, adding a little bow. Dawn played along, and gave a mock-curtsey in return. "I heard you had a Prinplup?"

"He evolved," Dawn replied proudly. "Neptune's an Empoleon now."

Kenny looked impressed. "Really?" he said. "Would you mind if my Prinplup met him – not now, of course," he added in a hurry. "Maybe later."

"That sounds good to me," Dawn said. Perhaps Neptune would be able to impart some valuable knowledge.

And then, Lisia came up to her. "I'm glad you're coming with us," Lisia said after exchanging greetings.

"Why?" Dawn asked, wondering if the other girl wanted someone that would make her look good in comparison. She doubted her mom would have taken on someone with an attitude like that as her student, but she wondered all the same.

Lisia's smile was genuine. "Because I'll have someone in my age group!" she said. "I'm thirteen, and I was _really_ worried that I was going to be the youngest one there."

That _did_ sound a little nerve-wracking. Dawn hadn't thought about that before, but now that Lisia had mentioned it, she was glad that there was going to be someone the same age as her there as well. At the very least, if the party got too boring, she'd have someone she could – somewhat – relate to.

Kenny smirked and poked Lisia's arm. "I thought you were bringing a date?" he asked innocently.

Dawn blinked while Lisia flushed red. "He's a friend!" she cried. "And doing a favour because he's nice – unlike _certain_ people whose names I won't mention!"

Zoey silently shook with laughter in the back while Johanna just sighed, finishing off the last touches to her own makeup. She had chosen to wear a simple black dress with a diamond pendant and a cream wrap. Classic, and more background material than a performer's. She really did want to be in the audience for this one.

"I'm still not sure I approve, Lisia," Johanna said. "I really would have liked to meet him first, even if your uncle said he was alright."

"He's a great guy, I promise," Lisia said hurriedly. "Uncle Wallace used to mentor him with Uncle Juan, and he's definitely been checked and approved by them. He used to teach me about Pokémon when I was younger, too."

The doorbell rang, and Dawn went off to answer it. "I think your date's here," she called, not able to resist a small jab at the other girl's expense.

Laughing at Lisia's wail and the other two's laughter, she opened the door.

"Hi," said the person outside, too wrapped up in a thick scarf and a winter coat for her to really make out his face. "Is this the residence of Ms. Johanna Steele?"

"You're at the right place," Dawn replied, eyeing him carefully in case he was a fan of her mom's who had just decided to drop by and stalk her. It had happened before. More than once. "I can take your coat and scarf for you," she offered, holding out her arms.

"Thank you," he said cheerfully, and unwrapped the scarf from around his head before laying it on her arm and starting on his coat while Dawn looked him over.

The potential fan or Lisia's possible friend-slash-date was an older boy. Or man. Dawn thought he was eighteen at the least.

And he was, she noticed, _really_ good looking, looking sharp in a charcoal gray suit, light blue shirt and dark indigo tie that matched Lisia's dress. His dark brown hair was short and neat, and his smiling, clean-shaven face could let him easily rival any movie star her mom had worked with.

For some reason, he also looked familiar to her. Dawn tried to place him in her memories. Had she seen him on television, maybe? Mom hadn't met him, so it was unlikely she had met him in person . . . .

"This is Brendan," Lisia, who had come running after her, introduced him, and Dawn started at the name. Could he be . . . ?

When Lisia called her by name, Brendan turned to meet her eyes, and then his polite, awed smile turned into a friendlier one. "Dawn and I have met," he said, smile widening to show his white teeth.

_Wow_. And Dawn had thought Brendan had been handsome covered in mud and wearing his ratty sweatshirt. Dressed to the nines like this, clean and looking sharp, he had her fighting to not blush and say something really stupid in front of him.

"Small world," she managed with a smile and _really_ hoped didn't look too weird.

He laughed. "I'll say. How's your Tangela doing?"

"She evolved!" Dawn said proudly. Her Pokémon. The subject she felt confident in. Excellent, she could do this – talk without making a fool of herself.

"Really?" he raised his eyebrows. "That was quick. I didn't know you were a coordinator, Dawn."

"Oh, I'm not." Dawn would have said more, but the rest of the group joined them in the front of the house.

"You must be Brendan Birch," Johanna said, sweeping up to him like she was a queen and in a full regal wear instead of a simple sheath dress. She certainly did have the effect a queen might, though – Brendan snapped to attention and looked very respectful.

"Yes ma'am," he said. "It's an honour to meet you, ma'am."

"Please, just Ms. Johanna will do," she said with a friendly smile.

Dawn silently began counting down from ten in her head. _Ten_. _Nine_.

"Now, Wallace has told me some things about you."

_Eight_.

"Yes ma – Ms. Johanna."

_Seven._

"He tells me that you're a good man and coordinator."

_Six. Five._

"I try, Ms. Johanna. And I swear that I won't do anything to cause Lisia – or anyone else – harm or embarrassment."

_Four. Three. Two._

"Good. Because if you do end up doing something stupid out of carelessness or thoughtlessness, I will do everything in my power to end you. Are we clear?"

_One._

Right on time, her mom's smile, which had been on the setting of 'friendly' and 'beauteous', suddenly changed to 'frightening'. Dawn saw Brendan's eyes widen in shock and fear.

Huh, he took that well. She'd seen some grown men flinch and outright cower when her mom put that particular smile on. Heck, she'd seen Jagger stand down when her mom turned The Smile onto full 'listen to me or face my wrath'.

But then Brendan's eyes cleared and he straightened his back. "Yes, Ms. Johanna," he said crisply. "I swear on everything that I hold dear and important to my heart that I will be nothing less than a gentleman."

Even more impressive – not many could recover their strength that quickly after witnessing The Smile. And there was no sarcasm or irony in his voice – he genuinely meant it. More points in his favour.

Johanna's smile turned warmer, as did the surrounding air. "Good. I've been hoping to meet you, since Wallace has been highly recommending you for a while now to the coordinating community. You coordinate, but you also research and train, I hear? How do you manage all of your activities?"

Brendan relaxed slightly, and answered her questions intelligently. Dawn could see her mom approving of him, and gave a reassuring smile to Lisia, who was fretting silently at the side.

"I have to admit," Zoey muttered quietly, dreamy eyes glued to his animated face. "He really _is_ a catch. Nicely done, Lisia."

Lisia floundered, blushing hard, while Kenny rolled his eyes.

"I'm actually in Sinnoh for the semester because Rustboro University has an exchange program with Sunyshore Institute of Technology," Brendan was saying when the doorbell rang.

"Ah, there's our ride," Johanna said, rising with a clap of her hands. "Everyone has what they need? Good, let's go."

Outside, a handler dressed like a butler and the Alakazam with him bowed. "Please hold on tightly," he said, extending a gloved hand. He made sure that all six of them had a firm grip on either his arm or someone holding onto him. "Teleport."

Helios was good at rapid bursts of small teleports. He was extremely reluctant, however, to take her or anyone else along, which was why Dawn had respected his wishes and let him just teleport alone.

However, there was more to teleport than just moving around the field during battle to confuse and annoy opponents. It could be used as a way to easily transport people to their destinations. While it was easy to shut out teleporters, it was easy for the owners of properties to allow certain time periods where it would be possible for select psychics to teleport in.

That made it helpful in bringing in guests if one lived a distance from cities. Richard Backlot lived in a mansion with a territory large enough to be a neighbourhood of its own, and he was calling in people from all over Sinnoh. It would be easier if he had people teleported in, which was why he had sent psychics to his guests.

Dawn saw a flash of violet, and then the familiar setting of Twinleaf had been replaced with the large entrance hall of the Backlot Mansion.

"Here we are," their teleport handler said, withdrawing his arm and bowing. "Please enjoy your time, honoured guests, and have a wonderful evening."

Johanna nodded graciously, and then led them to the direction of the ballroom.

Dawn hung back slightly. "How did you do that?" she whispered to Brendan.

"Hm?" He looked at her. "How did I do what?"

"You know, just, act like Mom didn't scare you."

He cracked a slow smile. "Your mom's not the first protective, powerful guardian figure I've had the pleasure of meeting," he said. "And compared to some of them, she's really not that bad. At least she didn't have a Slaking or a _Gyarados_ next to her while she did that."

"No," Dawn said thoughtfully. "But her Salamence was somewhere else."

Brendan paled slightly, and his smile faltered. "So you're Johanna Steele's daughter," he said, changing the subject.

Dawn's own smile slipped, but she quickly pasted it back on. "Uh-huh," she said, bracing herself for the inevitable comment on her life's choices.

Most people always made the comment or asked the question. Always wondered why she had no interest in following her mom's path as a coordinator. They had laughed and teased her for it when she had been younger and declared her dream of becoming a trainer because they had believed she was only saying that. It didn't make sense to most people, that the only daughter of a legend wouldn't follow her footsteps to create a dynasty to rule the (coordinating) world. Now that she had actually chosen her path, she didn't doubt that there would be more questions.

But Brendan broke her expectations yet again. "That explains why I thought you looked familiar when I first saw you," he said with a small but decisive nod. "You have your mom's eyes and nose, I think. And her facial structure. Definitely her hair, too."

Dawn blinked. "You're not going to ask questions about me not being a coordinator?" she asked.

"Should I?" he asked with a bemused smile.

"Well, no – I mean – wait," Dawn sputtered, confused.

Brendan laughed. "Relax, I'm just kidding. And as for why . . . well, I don't believe that people should expect you to be a certain person simply because of what your parents are known for. Be your own person, do what you like, you know?"

Dawn stared at him. "I like you," she decided out loud as they walked into the ballroom, where people were already fluttering around, talking to each other and sipping at drinks. A Kricketune and Kricketot were singing a harmonic song at one end, following the hauntingly beautiful melody set by a famous coordinator whose name currently escaped her playing a lyre and singing in Sinnohan.

"Thank you," he said with a grin. "I like you too. Want some sparkling pecha juice?"

Dawn reached out for the flute he had snagged from a passing waiter. "Thanks," she said, for more than just the juice.

"No problem." He snagged a pomeg drink himself. "No alcohol while on the job," he explained before holding his flute towards her.

She clinked her own lightly against his. "You better not," she said jokingly, and then took a sip. It tasted pretty much like all sparkling juice did, but she loved it anyways.

"Johanna Steele!" a voice boomed from across the ballroom. People looked towards the host of the party and owner of the mansion, a heavy set man with both hair and thick moustache graying, who held his arms wide.

Her mom gave a gentle smile. "Richard Backlot," she replied while shaking her head slightly in exasperated fondness.

"It has been far too long since I have last seen your beauty, my dear," he boomed, crossing over to her side to give her a hug. Johanna returned it, and then held him at arm's length. "I am pleased beyond words that you have finally reciprocated my love!"

Brendan stiffened. "Wait, what?" he said in surprise.

Dawn giggled. "It's a joke they have," she explained. Although if he ever did become serious about it she wasn't going to be happy.

"And Dawn's here as well!" Suddenly the rich man's attention was on her. "I see you're still as cute as ever!"

She gave him a wide smile. "Hi, Mr. Backlot," she chirped. "Thank you for inviting me!"

"Of course, of course!" he patted her shoulder. "I hope I'll be seeing you performing later on in the appeal battles?"

Dawn nodded.

"Excellent," Mr. Backlot said with a beaming smile. "Enjoy the party!"

"I will," she said. When he went back to talking enthusiastically with her mom, she turned to Brendan. "I'll give you back to your date," she told him. "Have fun bye!"

Before Brendan could react, she fast-walked away.

Sometimes, having Barry as a best friend really helped. Especially with her speed and getting out of situations before anyone realized what had happened.

Now . . . what to do?

While her main purpose here was to network and try to gain sponsors, she couldn't very well just walk up to people and demand their money. That wasn't how it worked.

At the same time, she couldn't just randomly approach people to strike up conversations. This wasn't just a school playground where friends were made by going up and suggesting a game to play together. The general rule was that you were introduced. Johanna would have her hands full with her three students, meaning that she wouldn't be able to introduce Dawn to other people without taking attention off her students.

And she certainly wouldn't have brought Dawn along to merely sit on her hands until the appeals round. She had to make contact before, introduce herself and let them get to know her on a closer level if she really wanted them to remember her.

Which meant her best option was to –

"The appeal rounds won't be until an hour later," said a voice.

Dawn nearly jumped, spinning around to find a dark-haired teen in a white suit. "Hi, Liam," she said, greeting Mr. Backlot's only son.

He smiled back. "Hey, Dawn. You're short as ever."

She puffed out her cheeks in anger. "I bet I could beat you in a battle," she muttered. Liam was nice, in an older brother way, but he always teased her about her height. Sometimes she was tempted to just kick him hard between his legs. Let's see how he liked height differences then.

"I'm sure you could," he said condescendingly.

She gave him a toothy smile, silently promising herself that when it came time to do the battles, she'd seek him out, and then have her Pokémon crush his.

And then she'd have to seriously act cute to Mr. Backlot if she wanted to crush his son and not insult him. Was it worth it?

"So, you came with your boyfriend?" he asked, nodding to Brendan's direction. "He seems a little old for you."

"Not mine," she corrected him, and pointed out Lisia. "Hers."

"Ah. So you're the unrequited part of the love triangle."

Yes, it would most definitely be worth it to crush him. She couldn't wait.

"Where's Celeste?" she asked before she gave too much consideration to the thought of introducing Liam to Sekhmet. Specifically his head to the inside of her mouth. Nice thoughts.

"With her boyfriend. She wanted to spend more time with him, and they had a dinner and movie date planned in Unova." He rolled his eyes. "Stickler for the classics."

Dawn tried to remember why she didn't mind his presence most of the time.

"So I guess you're stuck with me," he said, offering her a bent arm. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the people you don't know."

Oh right, that was why. Because at heart, he was a pretty nice guy with good intentions. He just sometimes said things without thinking about how that might affect other people.

Dawn took his arm. Her best option was to find someone else she knew pretty well and stick with them so they could introduce her to their acquaintances, and Liam had just solved that problem for her. "Thank you."

"Anything for a beautiful lady," he replied. "Even if she's a bit of a midget. So. Since you're a trainer now, you should really meet some of the people in the training industry. You've heard of Galactic Corporations – are you alright?"

"Sorry," Dawn apologized, having stumbled and nearly knocked him over. "Galactic – they made Porygon-Z, right?"

"That's the flashiest thing they've come up with, but yes," he replied. "They also design armour for rangers or soldiers, and computer programs that simulate Pokémon battles for training purposes. The Sinnoh League is currently negotiating a contract with them."

Dawn frowned. She didn't like the sound of that. She didn't _trust_ Team Galactic, and Galactic Corporations sounded a little too shady to her, what with their connections to the group.

Maybe Professor Rowan would have something to say about this. She made a note to find a way to bring it up and ask about it.

"Anyways, those two ladies over there happen to be representatives from GC," he continued on, nodding to a middle-aged woman with heavy makeup. Her long dark blue hair was pinned up in a tight bun, and her clothes were the style of someone in her twenties, but her eye shadow was too thick, and only made her seem even older.

The younger woman next to her was dressed more quietly, in a discreet gray cocktail dress with a black bolero jacket. She looked like an assistant to the older woman, from the way she stood to her superior's side and held herself subserviently. Still, her eyes were bright and her face lively, surrounded by light brown curls half pinned back by a jeweled pin.

"I see," she said.

"Liam, have you gotten to harassing young women into being your dates again?" chided a soft male voice.

Dawn looked away from the Galactic people and saw a purple-haired man with a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Liam scowled. "Lucian, it's not like that," he said. "She's an old friend."

Lucian looked at her with lazy violet eyes. "I don't believe we've met . . .?" he trailed off.

Dawn held out a hand and smiled. "Dawn Steele," she said. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

He took the hand, but instead of shaking it bowed over it and let his lips hover over her knuckles for a brief moment. "The pleasure is all mine."

She flushed, not having expected that, and then glared at Liam when he snickered. "Looks like someone's got a crush," he teased.

Oh, he was _so_ getting his butt kicked.

Lucian, however, waved it off. "Perhaps if she'd been in the presence of a proper gentleman who treated her like she deserved to be, she wouldn't have been so surprised to witness decent manners from our family. My apologies, Ms. Steele, for my cousin's rude behaviour. I believe the fault lies with me, as I dropped him often when he was a baby."

Surprised at the unexpected joke, Dawn giggled. "Just Dawn is fine," she told him.

"Then, Just Dawn," he said with a slightly more upward curve to his lips. "I do hope you enjoy the party. Pardon me."

He drifted away, soon disappearing from sight. Dawn looked back towards Liam to find the older boy shaking his head like he knew something she didn't. "What?" she asked defensively.

"It's not often Lucian comes to these events," he said. "His mom's my aunt, and he's always hated coming to social events like these. I bet he's heading to the library right now so he can read in peace now that he's made his obligatory appearance. Or to hang out with the hot blonde 'friend' he brought as his plus one," he said, adding air quotes around the word like he didn't believe Lucian would be just friends with whoever he had brought.

"Okay?" Dawn asked slowly.

Liam grinned. "Don't get a crush on him, is all I'm saying."

Since no one was looking, she kicked his ankle.

"Ow," he whined.

Dawn huffed. "You kind of deserved it."

Liam recovered from the 'grievous wound' soon enough, and led her to the Galactic people. Dawn was slightly tense about meeting them, but kept her head up and breathing steady.

"Chief Legal Officer Io," Liam greeted. "Ms. Sutherland. Great to see you here."

The middle-aged woman looked at the two of them with half-lidded eyes. "Liam," she said. "And who would this be?"

Dawn didn't think she really cared all that much, but was feigning interest just so she could look halfway interested. "Dawn Steele," Liam said. "Dawn, this is Diana Io, the CLO of Galactic Corporations. And next to her is the lovely Ms. Sutherland, her secretary."

"A pleasure," CLO Io said, and Dawn wondered if the older woman knew her voice sounded flat. She certainly didn't _sound_ like she considered it a pleasure to meet her.

"Nice to meet you," Ms. Sutherland smiled brightly. "Are you a coordinator?"

"Oh no," Dawn said, surprised at the genuineness of the secretary's . . . well, _everything_ in contrast to her boss. "That's my mom's thing. I'm a trainer."

"I see. Will you still be partaking in the appeals battle later on?"

Dawn nodded, feeling more comfortable talking to the brown-haired woman than the cold CLO.

Still, even with Ms. Sutherland's somewhat soothing presence, the older woman was making her feel extremely uncomfortable. "I'm aiming to demonstrate a balance of power and appeals," she said, reciting the official reason for why she was here. "Do you have any Pokémon of your own?" she asked, trying to make it a conversation instead of a monologue. This way she actually engaged.

"A Leafeon – but she's at home, resting. I don't think I'll need to ask whether you have Pokémon of your own," Ms. Sutherland said with a mischievous smile.

Dawn smiled back. "And what about you, CLO Io?" she asked.

"A Porygon-Z," was the clipped reply. Dawn felt her smile falter and had to actively keep it on her face.

Keep trying.

"Galactic Corporations made the upgrade to evolve Porygon-2 into the newer version, right?" she said, thanking Mespirit that she had talked with Maylene about that before and had prior knowledge of what the company did. "I have a friend who has a Porygon. He's interested in the evolution his Pokémon's going to go through."

Actually, Lucas was interested in evolution, because he was interested in Pokémon in general and studied with the evolution expert of the Pokémon research world, but a little embellishment wouldn't hurt in her favour.

"The sooner he evolves his Porygon, the better," was the dry response. "The Porygon-Z is a fantastic upgrade that will become a valuable member of any trainer's team. Excuse me for a moment."

And with that, the CLO walked away. Dawn wasn't sure whether to feel relieved that the woman had left, or feel disappointed that she had failed to properly engage with her.

The secretary picked up on her mood. "Don't feel too bad about it," Ms. Sutherland said with an understanding smile. It occurred to Dawn that she really was young, maybe in her mid-twenties. "She's not very good at expressing herself."

"Okay," Dawn said, not really sure how to respond to that. With pity? In Dawn's opinion, she was expressing herself a little _too_ well. "Thanks, Ms. Sutherland."

"No problem. And please, call me Lily."

* * *

They wandered through a few more of the guests before Dawn's stomach growled and she had to head over to the buffet table to pick up some food. Liam eventually left her side after seeing her mom's students so he could try and chat up Zoey. Dawn watched in amusement as he seemed to be struggling against the smirking redheaded girl. She popped a Krabby puff into her mouth and chewed. Delicious. And even more so when Liam was getting a karmic kick to his backside.

She decided that she really liked Zoey. The girl was very cool.

"Hi," Lisia said, joining her side with a small plate in her hands. Dawn glanced towards it and found a few vegetables. Nothing else.

She frowned. She herself had grabbed two big plates, piled with all sorts of food. Granted, one of them was for her Pokémon, but still. "How are you enjoying it so far?"

She shrugged, letting the issue of how much Lisia ate go. She wasn't the performer. She could leave dieting for her mom to talk to her students about. "Not too bad. You?"

"Oh, um, good." Lisia fidgeted, and Dawn realized she had something to say. Popping another puff – this one filled with Mareep mutton – into her mouth and chewing, she waited for her to get her courage.

"Do you have a crush on Brendan?"

Having been in the middle of swallowing her pastry, Dawn choked in surprise. She coughed, eyes watering with tears, and had to take several deep breaths so she wouldn't choke and die.

What a horrible, embarrassing way to die that would be. Barry would alternate between laughing his butt off and yelling at her grave for dying so pointlessly.

"What?" she managed to say once her coughing had subsided. She grabbed her glass – this one filled with water – and took a deep swallow, washing her throat out of any food that still stubbornly stuck.

Lisia looked at her with wide, serious eyes. "Do you like Brendan?"

"Well," she said, stalling. Was this girl talk? She wasn't a fan of girl talk. She liked talking with Lyra, but they mostly talked about Pokémon-related things. And this kind of conversation would never see the light of day with Barry, not if she could do anything about it. "Um."

Lisia drooped, and she looked like a heartbroken princess. "I see," she said softly.

Oh dear, Lisia was getting the wrong idea. "I mean, I like him as a person," Dawn said hurriedly. "He helped me when I first met him, and he's funny and nice. I think he'd be a good friend. I like him in that way, I guess."

The teal-haired girl looked at her with doubt in her eyes. "Really?"

Dawn nodded, and then understood why Lisia was acting like this and asking such questions. "Do _you_ like Brendan?" she asked.

Her answer was obvious even when Lisia didn't say a word in reply – it was evident in the fiery red her face and neck had turned.

Dawn smiled. Okay, so girl talk wasn't so hard. "Don't worry," she reassured her. "He's all yours."

"Really?" Lisia didn't seem to believe her.

She held a hand over her heart. "Cross my heart and hope to die," she said solemnly.

Slowly, Lisia nodded. "Thank you."

Of course, now that Dawn knew about this, she couldn't just let it go. "So why do _you_ like him?" she asked, grabbing the last savoury pastry on her plate. After this, she wanted dessert.

Lisia hummed thoughtfully, biting into a celery stick. Dawn made a face. Healthy eating was fine and all, but really? Live a little.

"I've liked him for a few years now," she said at last, after she swallowed. "I guess for the reasons you've listed. He's a great person, funny, nice, smart, talented, and good-looking as well. He's always understanding, and tries to protect the people he cares about. And," she added, almost as an afterthought. "He saved my life a few times."

Oh, well that would do the job pretty well, she supposed. "That wasn't the main reason why?" Dawn asked drily.

Lisia shrugged, spreading her hands across her skirted lap nervously. "I mean, it definitely helped. I think it got me interested in him in the first place. But you know, the more time I spent with him, the more I found that I really liked him. I've loved him for years now."

Dawn looked at her with skepticism at a particular word. "Love?" she said slowly. That sounded . . . well, a little extreme.

The teal-haired girl returned the look. "I know what you're thinking," she said. "I'm probably too young, and it'll eventually pass. I hope so – he doesn't like me like I like him, and that hurts."

If she said so.

But still, now Lisia looked a little sad. So Dawn reached out and patted her back gently. "It'll all work out," she said softly. "In the meantime, just do your best, right?"

Lisia smiled. "Right."

Then, because there was a call for appeals battles, they got to their feet. "Ready?" Dawn asked, feeling her hands grow slightly damp from sweat. She wiped it off and pushed the full plate far back so it wouldn't be as noticeable.

"Mm-hm," Lisia replied.

Before Dawn could get Liam so she could crush him, however, Lisia reached out to touch her arm. "And, um, thanks, Dawn."

"No problem," she replied.

Then, Sekhmet's ball in hand, she rushed towards Liam. "You, me, single battle," she said. "One-on-one."

"If you insist," Liam said, flicking his bangs theatrically.

She smiled. This was going to be so fun.

There were five small battlefields set up in the middle of the ballroom, each with a force field set up and a referee doubling as a judge. Ten participants could hold appeal battles at the same time, if they did single battles.

Some, however, were doing doubles, either by themselves or with a partner. Lisia was looking more cheerful as she and Brendan faced off against Kenny and Zoey. Dawn kind of wanted to see how that matchup would go, but decided to focus on her own battles.

Standing at her end of the field, Dawn saw Johanna and Mr. Backlot make their way over to watch their children's battles, and she straightened her back. Her mom was watching.

That was it, she was winning this.

"Begin!" the referee called.

The appeals battle was a Kantonese style of coordinating that had grown immensely popular and spread worldwide. It was a battle, but the winner could be decided not just based on knocking the other out, but also through skill of performance and presentation – through appeal to the audience, or more specifically, the judge.

The rules of appeals battle for tonight would follow the standard contest format. Five minutes for each battle, each side starting off with a hundred points. The flashier and more effective one side's moves were, the more points the other side would lose. However, if the move failed to go through, or were rendered ineffective by the other side – or heck, even dodged elegantly – the user could lose just as many points.

When one side's Pokémon fainted, or five minutes passed, the appeals battle was over. Whoever had the most points would then win, and head to the next round. Normally, when a Pokémon was knocked out, enough points were lost so that it almost always meant a loss, but occasionally even with all Pokémon unconscious, some coordinators had still managed to put up a more appealing battle, giving them a win.

"Sekhmet!" Liam wasn't much for training or battling competitively. Sekhmet could intimidate whatever his choice was, and then seize the momentum easily, dominating with her tough and cool moves before her opponent could try to retaliate.

"Kloey!" Liam shouted, releasing a –

Oh come on.

Sekhmet entered the field, roaring loudly and sparks crackling in her dark mane. Her powerful roar drew the attention of many people, who saw the majestic Luxray, her fluid power obvious in the way she held herself ready to spring at a moment's notice, and how she looked like an incarnation of a thunder god.

Facing down a Blissey.

A _Blissey_.

Oh come on.

The Blissey family were Pokémon that were healers, not fighters, by nature. They were immensely popular with nurses because of their innate nature to heal the wounded and sick. They were popular with trainers as well, because they were able to serve as extremely effective tanks and clerics on the team.

Facing one not only made Sekhmet look like a bully, but it would also be a tough fight.

Liam's smirking face, however, only made her more willing to take him down. "Charge, Sekhmet!"

The electricity crackled around her, raising her mane slightly. Her claws and eyes gleamed golden, and her low growl vibrated deeply.

"Kloey, growl!"

The Blissey took a deep breath, and then chirped softly, trying to appeal to Sekhmet's soft side.

"Leer," Dawn replied, barely keeping the devious grin off of her face.

Sekhmet yowled, interrupting the growl, and flashed her eyes. Usually, her leers were kept simple and quick.

But right now, the importance was the flashiness of the moves. Her eyes glowed, and then, due to the charge she had used, a larger apparition of the glowering eyes projected itself in front of her face, making a more dramatic and terrorizing effect.

Kloey the Blissey cowered and screamed. She was a domesticated Pokémon, used to small skirmishing battles and the life of a pet. Sekhmet was a Pokémon that had been wild, who had trained to fight – to win. On top of that, she was an apex predator.

The terror she felt was completely justified.

"Kloey, it's okay!" Liam called, although he seemed as unsettled from the sight as his Pokémon was.

"Roar," Dawn said in a cheerful girly voice, knowing all-too-well that the order's tone would contrast greatly to the effect.

Sekhmet took a deep breath, steadying herself, and then she _roared_.

Her entrance roar had been impressive. This one, with eyes hauntingly glowing and shooting out the golden beams that her species was known for, was not only louder, but far more regal and magnificent, demanding instant subjugation from her enemy. How dare the foe stand against her – she was to be obeyed, not opposed. The penalty for daring to resist would be withdrawn in pain and suffering.

Poor Kloey never stood a chance against the onslaught of terrifying intimidation that radiated off the Luxray. The Blissey, round healing blob of pink that she was, nearly flew backwards until she reached the edge of the field, where she curled up into herself and rocked back and forth, whimpering in terror.

Sekhmet gave Dawn a very pointed look, as if to say_, I never even _touched_ her and she's acting like this. Why did you send _me_ out to deal with her?_

"I forfeit," Liam called, returning the sobbing Kloey. "That Luxray of yours," he said, exhaling as the sparks began fading from Sekhmet's mane. "He's impressive."

The force field came down so her Luxray could walk out of the field. Sekhmet, having heard the last comment Liam made, bared her teeth and growled lowly, making him stiffen in fear.

"Sekhmet's a girl," she told him cheerfully with a wide smile as the Luxray joined them, laying a hand against the side her head. The static stung her hand slightly, but Dawn ignored it. "Great job," she added to Sekhmet. "You were amazing out there. I think we could weaponize that."

Her Luxray gave a low purr, always pleased to be told that she had been amazing, and gently butted her large snout against Dawn's shoulder. She stood on her toes and smoothed down the top part of her mane, freeing static sparks from the dark blue hair while the judge settled the scores.

She got a surprisingly large amount of points for a battle that was more battle than actual appealing. She guessed that was all Sekhmet's natural charisma . . .

. . . and how the poor Blissey had been unable to even dare stand up against her.

The other battles went a generally positive direction as well. Frejya, against the coordinator who was known to incorporate sound in all his moves – Nando, _that_ was his name – slumped to the ground at the Kricketune's sing.

When the Kricketune had rushed her, however, its wings vibrating with a bug buzz and x-scissors wrapped and powered up by the streamers produced from them, she had jumped up right before it could hit her and then given the poor bug-type a fire punch uppercut.

Then, she had proceeded to alternate between flashy fire and thunder punches, easily taking and ignoring every attempt her enemy made to fight back and almost toying with her foe until the bug had been driven to a corner of the field, severely shaken up by how all of its attacks seemed ineffective against the serenely smiling Lopunny.

Frejya was a scary Pokémon to be crossed.

Faith did well, kicking up sand attacks that then wrapped swifts to create a meteor's tail-like effect. Despite that, her opponent, a Clefairy, managed to pull off a metronome that summoned – of all things – an aura sphere. That attack broke through the thin protective layer of swift and stunned Faith long enough for the Clefairy to knock her out cleanly with a double slap.

But she had done well, and Dawn was proud of her.

"You're pretty good," Zoey, her last opponent for the appeals round, told her. "I didn't think that a trainer would last so long, even if it was appeal battling."

Dawn held her Gallade's ball in her hand. "Thank you," she said politely while thinking, _gotta beat them all_. "I had a good teacher."

The redheaded girl smirked, and then released a Glameow. Grinning widely at their luck, Dawn sent in Helios.

"A Gallade," Zoey noted as Helios bowed elegantly to his foe before taking an impressive-looking stance. Already, he was turning on the charm and raking in the points. "I was wondering whether I should get a dawn stone for my Kirlia or not. Bellatrix, fake out!"

Helios was flinched by the whipping tail of the sudden blur that was the Glameow. Dawn kept her face smooth – flinching was better for them in the long run. Her Gallade had gained an interesting ability after his stone-induced evolution.

"Helios," she said, and her Gallade straightened from his instinctive cower, scarlet eyes blazing with psychic power ready to be unleashed upon his foe. "Ready?"

"Sorry, can't let you do that." Zoey smirked. "Shadow claw!"

Yowling, Zoey's Glameow lunged forwards, both front paws enwrapped in a shadowy material that sharpened into threatening claws.

Helios narrowed his eyes. "Psycho cut with the right!" Dawn instructed. Right arm glowing blue with psychic energy, he swung wide from the left to right, and sent the blade that materialized flying towards the cat Pokémon.

At the sudden appearance of the wide psychic blade, Bellatrix was forced to duck to avoid being cut, but she didn't stop running even when she felt some of the hair on the top of her head be sliced away. She looked up to see where her foe would be now –

And, to her shock, found that he was right there, far quicker than she had expected for him to be.

"Rock smash," Dawn said, smiling. Steadfast – her Gallade's ability – raised his speed when flinched, something Themis had unfortunately discovered after trying to gain the upper hand on him with a barrage of astonish attacks. Helios had ended up speeding up to the point where he could out-speed the Golbat.

With his left hand curled into an orange-glowing fist, he brought it down upon the Glameow's head. At the last minute, she managed to roll out of the way so that the fighting-type move struck her shoulder and not her head, but it was a close one, and a hard hit. She hissed in pain, and tensed.

"Secret power!"

After darting away from Helios, Bellatrix let her entire body shine with a pink light as she absorbed in energy from her surroundings. Her entire body shone, outlining her feline form.

"Iron tail!"

Still brightly glowing pink, the Glameow covered her entire curling tail in steel energy, and then screeched fiercely. The pink light covering her body transferred to the tip of the long tail, forming a large glowing orb.

"Spin it, Bellatrix!"

The Glameow, hissing triumphantly, began spinning her tail. The pink ball of light began to fluctuate sharply from the centrifugal force as she did so, forming spikes on its surface, and appeared as a powerful mace, ready to strike.

The more it spun, Dawn saw, the longer the 'spikes' on the end of the mace became. And the more it was spun, of course, the harder it would fly when the normal-type finally released it.

Helios stayed calm throughout it all, red eyes showing no fear whatsoever in the display. He simply braced himself, ready to spring into any action when necessary.

"Now!"

Instead of releasing the pent-up energy like Dawn had guessed, the Glameow lunged forwards, still spinning the secret power with the iron tail.

Fine with her. "Helios, dodge with teleport! Follow with ice punch!"

Just as the iron tail with the secret power mace came smashing down upon him, Helios blinked out of sight. The Glameow hissed in pain when her tail hit the hard ground, and then yowled outright when he appeared before her to deliver a precise ice punch.

"Shadow claw!"

Getting to her feet, the Glameow lunged forth, shadowy claws larger and sharper than ever. Helios, having a bad experience with that particular move, narrowed his red eyes.

"Fire punch, parry with swords dance!" Dawn shouted, crossing her fingers. Truth be told, she hadn't thought of the idea of pulling off an elemental punch with a swords dance at the same time until this very moment. He needed power to not only effectively parry, but also push back Zoey's admittedly powerful Glameow. The fire punch would add a flare to the swords dance parry they liked to use . . .

She hoped. She really hoped that it wouldn't just blow up in their faces – literally.

The first shade-wrapped claw was blocked from scratching his eyes out by an easy swing of his arm blades, the second by a fire punch that cancelled out the majority of the attack's _oomph_. The Glameow, however, was increasing its speed and power between each shadow claw, and even with the swords dance to parry and block, Helios was going to be driven to a hard spot. The ghostly energy was effective against his psychic typing, meaning that it was almost like a physical claw attacking him.

"Shock wave," Zoey ordered.

The electricity, crackling, began to charge up at the Glameow's curly tail. The pale blue energy was growing, and Helios was still locked up with the two claws of the Glameow.

Dawn thought as fast as she could. Should he take it? His special defense was fine, more than enough to take that. But that meant letting the attack hit, and effective or not, it would still make her lose some points. An attack to cancel it out? It had better be something that had an advantage, or at the very least resist electricity if he wanted to be able to block it while keeping up.

Fire punch? No. Thunder punch? No. Ice punch? Maybe – it could freeze the energy. Rock smash was too 'solid' for something like electricity, so –

No, wait, there was one. "Leaf blade!" she shouted.

The fire punch on his right arm flickered out, and then his right arm blade extended, glowing green with grass energy. He pushed with his left, and then raised his right just in time to take the worst of the shock wave.

A shadow claw very nearly raked him in the face, but he lowered his leaf blade arm to block it from doing more harm, locking their arms and front paws together once more in an energy-wreathed stalemate.

The Glameow snarled, angry that her efforts had failed. She was getting tired herself, and keeping a move like shadow claw as flashy and menacing as she was right now was taking up a large amount of her efforts and energy. The shadowy energy would fade soon, and if it dissipated without being effective –

Hissing, Bellatrix dug her claws into the Gallade's forearms, and felt vindicated when she saw him wince. To his credit, however, he didn't give up.

"Shock wave again!"

She was getting desperate if she was trying to use the same move twice in a row, in the same situation, after Dawn had just proven how she could render it less effective. "Rock smash!"

Zoey was taken aback at Dawn's order. "But shadow claw's a ghost-type move," she muttered as on the field, Helios focused his power into his fists, still caught up in the shadow-cloaked claws of Bellatrix.

Helios shoved with all of his weight, and with his left arm free of anything except his strength, punched at the shadowy curtain that originated from the front paws of the feline Pokémon. The focused fighting-type move wrapped his fist in orange _ki_, and passed through the shadow claw's cold energy without catching. He winced when the shadow-wrapped claws managed to reach his chest, leaving black marks on his white body, but didn't let up on his punch.

And he hit Bellatrix right between her eyes, jerking her head back.

If it was his psychic typing that let him parry the ghost energy, then a fighting-type move would let him bypass that. Or so that had been her theory, and Dawn was glad to see it work.

Bellatrix crumpled, unable to continue fighting anymore after taking a swords dance-boosted rock smash to her face.

"And the winner is . . ." the referee let the results be shown. Dawn and Helios had at least twice as many points as Zoey. "Dawn!"

The force field down, Dawn grinned widely at Helios as Zoey returned her Glameow. "You're a tough trainer," the redheaded girl said to her.

"Thanks," she replied with a wide smile.

Zoey eyed Helios as he came over to stand by Dawn's side. "I'm definitely liking the idea of my Kirlia evolving into a Gallade now," she said musingly. "Any tips?"

Dawn eyed the shadowy burns left on Helios, and dug out her one hyper potion. Helios tried to protest, but a warning look from her shut him up. "Well, Helios was bulking up his muscles for a while before he evolved," she said, breaking the seal on the spray and making sure that the potion's mist set on the wounds. "Exercising, focusing on improving his physical attacks instead of his special, stuff like that. Lots of protein and vitamins to help with physical strength is really good, too, especially right before he evolved so he could, you know, build up on it."

"I see," Zoey said. "How long has he been a Gallade?"

"Back in the middle of September, I think," she said as she finished spraying off the last of the wounds. Helios shook his head when she held up the potion, signalling that he was all good now. "You sure? Nothing else hurts? Don't put up a tough front. If you're hurt and you don't tell me, it could get worse. Actually, show me your arms – you blocked a lot of hits and I'm worried about them."

Reluctantly, Helios held out his arms, and Dawn examined them carefully. She looked at Zoey when the other girl chuckled.

"What?" she asked, spraying a deep puncture made by the Glameow's claw. His arm tensed under her fingers, but he held still.

"You remind me of your mom," Zoey said with a smile. "Actually, you just remind me of a mom in general with her kid."

Dawn grinned, but then went back to examining his blade arms. "I know you're tough, but honestly, Helios," she said as she looked over the green arms. They were made up of tougher skin than his white torso, but they were still covered with wounds. "This is not okay."

Her Gallade bowed his head.

"But great job," she added. "You were awesome out there, pulling off all those appeals. I think we could try a fire punch boosted swords dance in battle, too – that might make your opponent think twice about trying to get up in your face while you get your swords dance up. Oh, and I have some food you guys might like. Let's get you some now that we're all finished up-"

"Fantastic battle," said a soft voice.

Dawn looked up. Zoey had wandered off, presumably to get her Glameow healed up. The soft voice belonged to Lucian, Liam's cousin.

And next to him stood a familiar face.

"_Cynthia_?!"

The blonde, dressed in a black cocktail dress similar to her mom's, smiled. "Dawn," she said with a friendly wave of her hand. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"Neither did I – what are you doing here?" But even as she asked, she looked at Lucian and remembered Liam's earlier comment about a hot blonde. "Is he your date?"

Cynthia laughed. "Good Azelf, no. We're just friends. He just let me come because his uncle is a collector of many valuable artifacts and tomes, and recently he unveiled another piece of his private collection."

Lucian smiled. "But your Gallade is quite a skilled battler," he said, nodding to Dawn before facing Helios directly. "May I know your name?"

Helios looked to Dawn, unsure of what he was supposed to do. "His name's Helios," she answered for him.

Lucian nodded, but still looked to Helios. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I must say, this is a coincidence, because -"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut off when all of the lights suddenly died and plunged the entire ballroom into darkness, making several people scream in surprise and fear. Dawn gasped, and then reached out to Helios. She was comforted to make contact with his arm, and held on tightly to his forearm, making sure to leave his elbow free in case he needed to extract his blades. "Can you pull up a fire punch for light?" she asked.

Helios shuffled, careful to not aim either of his fists in her direction in fear of hurting her, but before he got to it the lights reappeared.

"That was -" Dawn began, looking around, and then she stopped.

In the middle of the ballroom, in the middle of the four battlefields, on a glowing golden stage composed of some translucent material that looked similar to a light screen, stood a tall man. He wore a top hat, and a cape with raised collars. His face was hidden by an elaborate mask fit for a masquerade, and in one of his white gloved hands he carried an ebony cane tipped with golden metal.

Murmurs began rising from everyone, but they all fell silent when the mystery man in costume-like clothing opened his mouth.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced in a loud, clear tenor voice that echoed all throughout the ballroom. "As promised, the phantom thief Grand Master Rocco has come to claim his treasure!"

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Sekhmet (Luxray), Faith (Eevee), Helios (Gallade), Frejya (Lopunny)

_Home:_ Neptune (Empoleon), Themis (Golbat), Medusa (Tangrowth)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash)

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

(Long) AN: Hey, it's been over a year since this story was started! I realized it after Titanium's birthday, so no special b-day update, unfortunately (I'm such a bad author). Since we're more than halfway through the story, maybe next year. I hope we'll be finished with Titanium by then, and starting on the Hoenn arc of the **'Hall of Fame'** universe (although truth be told I'll be happy if we finish this before Adamant Diamond and Lustrous Pearl or whatever the Sinnoh remakes will be named come out).

But honestly you guys are awesome! We've passed 200k+ words, 50 favourites, 100 reviews and not a single flame! (I've just invited the trolls, haven't I?) Thank you so much!

Rocco, Lily and Io are characters in the Phantom Thief 7 manga. Lily's last name is Sutherland because it looks similar to 'Seven', which is her twin brother's (the titular character) Phantom Thief identity, and it's Norse for 'south land' which I thought was fitting, given their debut's location. Rocco, I used instead of Phantom Thief 7 because he's dressed better.

If you're thinking 'the side arcs are nice and all, Ten, but I really just want to see Dawn get to Celestic and then move to Canalave before the year ends' . . . well, in true Canadian fashion, sorry, that's probably not going to happen. I promise that the stuff that's in between will be relevant, but she won't win her next badge for another handful of chapters. My excuse is 'sorry', and 'character development'.

Next chapter: 'the party has been crashed', or, 'what all you rich folks gonna do about it?' I realize I may have left a bit of a cliffhanger, but if I didn't cut it short it wouldn't have been as fun. And this chapter alone was long enough.

Finally, I have an important question, and I _need_ you guys to answer this (so don't let me down?). I'm in the process of writing a 'side story', which is going to be essentially a collection of different sections from this canon.

**Is there anything you guys would be interested in reading about in particular that doesn't seem like it'll appear in _Titanium _or other main arc stories (ex: ranger regions, background/interaction of specific characters)?**

So far I've got two short stories definitely in planning, a Colosseum and PMD Blue, with much more focus on the former. It shouldn't be too long, I'm aiming for something around 20k+ words each. It'll give Orre's history (and talk a little more about why it's essentially the North Korea/insert-dictatorship-of-your-choice-here of this canon), a few scattered battles that you guys will hopefully like as much as the ones here, lay out groundwork for future stories, maybe some insight into what Wes's Pokémon are thinking and some development in character/relationship.

I'd really like to know what you guys want to see, though.


	27. Severing Ties

A.S.107

October 21st 

_But all in all, everything ended alright._

* * *

The passageway was a secret one, built during the last years of the Kantonese Imperial rule by a paranoid lord. Rebel forces had been strong that time, not only rallying around the Iron Islands in the west, Snowpoint up north, and Celestic in the east in Sinnoh, but also in other colonial regions like Johto and Hoenn. Unova's self-declaration of liberty – and how they had actually fought off the Kantonese forces – had given the seeds of rebellion all the prompts they needed to burst into frenzied growth.

The lord had been killed when Sinnoh finally erupted into full-out uprising, and the secret of the passageway had been buried with him. Later owners didn't bother to check behind strong chimneys and sturdy fireplaces for a hidden entrance, not expecting one to even be there.

The current residents of the old mansion had no idea that their house had such an easy entry in and out.

"You're sure we're hidden?" Rocco whispered, and grimaced when the sound resonated in the stone walls of the cramped space. What a way to spend the last hours of a passing year. Instead of an open sky outside, or the warm, welcoming hall at his luxuriously furnished, warm and cozy home, he was scrambling through a hidden tunnel with only a Lucario and a rival-slash-co-worker for company. His dream come true.

He could practically _feel_ the other man make a face behind him at his caped back. "Lupin's covering us while the others make the diversion," he said.

"Just being cautious," Rocco muttered. What _fabulous_ company to spend the last hours of a year with. "Especially after that time when we were supposedly covered but nearly got caught."

"That's because there was a _Steele_ Lucario there, and no one knew that Steele boy was there with his Pokémon. A Steele Lucario is a game-breaking hax. Steeles should stop making them or something to restore the balance back to the world."

Clearly, he still held a grudge. "Who knows if that Steele boy is here again?"

"Why would he be _here_? It's New Year's Eve – he's probably at his own mansion celebrating with his own family."

A little ahead of them, Lupin snorted quietly, as if he wondered why he was stuck doing jobs like this with them. That made at least two of them.

Still, despite the half-hearted squabble that was more habit now than actual heat, the Lucario and two humans were in good spirits. Another job well done, another plan for the bad guys foiled – and under the guise of a heist, too.

"By the way," Rocco said as Lupin paused momentarily to let his aura sensors flare as he scanned for any danger before continuing on. "I still think that pair of diamond earrings would be better on your sister."

"Stop thinking perverted stuff about my sister," was the reply he received.

"I would never," he lied with an offended huff. "You wound my honour, Seven."

"Shut up, Rocco. And the earrings are going back to the lady – she doesn't deserve to suffer because of what her husband spends money on."

Right, right. The main haul of the night hadn't been the heirloom jewels they had lifted from the family vault. It was a good thing that they weren't the actual target – some of them were fake, and Rocco swore to Dialga and Palkia that he felt them burn him with their very counterfeit presence. Cheap imitations being passed off as the real thing – he couldn't stand it.

Rather, their target – acquired successfully on top of their decoy haul – had been papers. Glorified receipts, basically, on what the crooked businessman had been spending money on.

Or whom.

Despite this being the third heist he had officially 'competed' against Seven with, and the fourth heist he was working on for the Squad rather than himself, he sometimes got the feeling that Seven just didn't want to do this. The other man clearly had the skills for it, but Rocco saw that he lacked the flair, the extravagance by nature. And most importantly, the want for the shiny.

The want for the shiny was very important, in this line of work.

"I jest," he said into the silence. It was almost stifling underground, despite it being New Year's. The tunnel had been built well. "I would never present stolen items to the beautiful Lily. That would disgrace me, and insult her."

Seven let out a growl, which was echoed by Lupin. Rocco smirked and lightly rolled his eyes. It was so easy to rile him up.

"So what's next?" Rocco continued to talk. The small size of the tunnels made it difficult for him to run without bending, and he could _hear_ his spine and lower back whining about it. "You still keep an eye on me? Make sure that I won't betray your trust? Or do we keep setting up heists where we 'compete'?"

"Who knows?" Seven said. "Bookie will give you the additional details."

"I'd prefer it if your sister was the one giving me the details," he shot back. "Between you and Bookie, my poor, terrorized eyes need someone with a good sense of fashion and colours."

Rocco nearly bit off his tongue in his effort to not cry out in surprise as something – or more specifically, someone – stepped on his cape, making him trip and fall straight on his backside while he was strangled by the catch holding the ends of the garment together at his throat. "Damn it, Seven," he managed to say once he had recovered his air and voice, pulling himself back up to his feet when he realized what had happened.

"Just saying, a cloak is probably not the best choice of wardrobe," Seven tossed out as he pushed past Rocco. He sounded smug.

"You just got my suit dirty," Rocco bit out. "This is a Fiorran suit, you son of a Muk."

Seven didn't skip a beat. "You're Sinnohan. Support the local economy instead of outsourcing."

Rocco paused in his efforts to clear the greyish dust from the expensive black fabric and glared at him, silently vowing revenge.

Seven smirked at him, and then stepped out first, Lupin at his heels. Rocco flipped him a gloved middle finger and took a second to straighten his clothes, grumbling about cretins who didn't know good fashion if it bopped them on the nose with an iron fist.

And that small prank was why Seven was the phantom thief to die that night, and not Rocco.

* * *

"Rhiannon, lucky chant!" Lisia called, smile widening despite the volley of sharp leaves flying towards their Pokémon. Her shiny Kirlia pressed her blue hands together, and with orange eyes glowing in golden light, began crooning dramatically in an arcane tongue. Light like stars, summoned by the little sorceress with her lucky chant, surrounded both Thales and Rhiannon in a protective, mystic sheath that lessened the worst of the incoming razor leaf's damage. Thales, despite the super effective hit, was able to simply shrug the leaves off.

"Thanks, Lisia," Brendan said with a grin of his own. "Thales, waterfall!"

"Help with hidden power!" Lisia was quick to call after him.

On the field, his Swampert let out a fierce cry before surrounding himself in water. Brightly glowing orbs streaked after him, creating a meteor's tail effect as Thales charged at their enemies, a Machoke and a Sunflora.

The Machoke, true to its powerful nature, tried to grapple with Thales by reaching out and grabbing at the large mudfish, but found itself overwhelmed by the sheer force Thales surged with. When a hidden power orb smashed in its face and briefly took its attention away, Thales overcame it and knocked it onto its back.

The Sunflora had avoided the surge of the waterfall attack, but the remains, including the majority of the hidden power, caught up to it. The orbs were apparently of super effective type to it, because the flower Pokémon reacted painfully to it.

"Vittorio, grass whistle!" the bard-themed coordinator said, fingers thrumming at the strings of his lyre.

The other coordinator, one of Lisia's fellow students, was quick to follow with his own directions, not wanting to be left flailing on his own. "Rock tomb!"

"Double team!"

"Thales, water gun!"

Rhiannon twirled once gracefully before three copies of her body split apart, each image nearly impossible to distinguish from the original. All four Kirlia stepped forth, batting away the shining notes of the grass whistle with blue hands glowing with golden psychic energy.

From behind the impromptu wall the Kirlia and her doppelgangers had made, Thales opened his mouth wide, and spat forth a blast of compressed water. It soared above the dancing emotion Pokémon's head, and fell just in time to smash into the rock that the Machoke raised into the sky.

"Confusion!"

"Razor leaf!"

"Mud shot!"

"Leer!"

"That's time!"

The last call was from the referee, and all four Pokémon – and their trainers – stopped, giving their attention to the judge, each side hoping that they were the winners.

Lady Victory smiled down upon their team. "Winner is the Blue Team!" the referee-slash-judge announced. Johanna and Mr. Backlot clapped politely while Lisia shared a high five with Brendan.

"We make a good team," he said, after giving Thales his usual reward – one sour Pokéblock – and returning him. "We've beaten everyone so far."

Lisia smiled as Rhiannon twirled her way over. "That's mostly you," she said modestly as she played with her Kirlia's blue hair, helping the psychic straighten it out.

He was tempted to ruffle her hair, but decided against it. Girls had a thing about their hair being messed up at important events, because it was harder for them to pull off the ruffled look.

Instead he just handed her a blue Pokéblock, knowing her Kirlia would like it. "Have some faith in your abilities," he told her.

She took it and expressed her gratitude before she noticed something in the field diagonally across to theirs. "Hey, look," she said. "Dawn has a Gallade. Maybe he'd like to meet with Rhiannon."

"Everyone finds a Ralts except for me," he complained, but before they could make their way over to the opposite corner of the area set aside for performances, the lights went out. "What in all-"

Brendan felt Lisia's hand fumble against his elbow in the darkness before grabbing on. "Rhi, can you use flash or something like that?" Lisia's voice was closest to him amongst the whispers and shocked sounds in the darkness of the room.

He heard the Kirlia croon in agreement, but the psychic didn't need to, as the lights returned almost immediately.

And showed that the room had a new addition to it. At the center of the carpet laid out in the four arenas was a stage constructed out of glowing walls. And, a man dressed as flamboyantly as any coordinator stood on top of it, grandly showboating.

Brendan's first reaction to the thief's words was to push Lisia behind him while reaching for a Poké ball. He had brought only two of his Pokémon with him tonight, figuring that while he was a coordinator as well, this night was for Lisia and her team to shine.

He now slightly regretted that decision. While both Thales and Hypatia were strong, skilled and capable fighters in their own right, he would have preferred it if he had his full team with him.

"Return Rhiannon, Lisia," he instructed, and heard her shuffling behind him to do as he said. The Kirlia was weakened from their last battle, and if a thief – because as flashy and well-dressed as that man was he was still a thief and Brendan did _not_ trust people who broke the law even when they tried to justify it, especially when they were in costume – saw a shiny Kirlia, he might decide to take her away. The psychic's parents might have been incredibly powerful battlers, but Rhiannon herself was more of a performer than a fighter.

He clicked Hypatia's ball to release her, and then frowned when nothing happened. He tried again, only to find that the ball was glowing faintly with a reddish light, but not working as it should have been.

Not good.

"Brendan," Lisia said behind him, sounding panicked. "I can't return Rhiannon."

He cursed silently. "Stay behind me," he said. "And if I tell you to run, _run_."

Almost as if some mischievous, irony-loving god up there had heard him, Brendan felt the incorporeal feel of something cold and chilling grab onto his feet and lower legs and pin him in place, rendering him incapable of moving his legs like someone had super-glued his feet to the ground. A sharp intake of breath from Lisia behind him and yelps from those around them told him that he wasn't the only one who had felt it.

"Can you move?" he asked while trying force his legs into taking a step. To move. To do anything instead of staying where it was, glued to the floor by something he couldn't see.

"No," Lisia said.

He did swear this time, out loud. Fantastic.

* * *

"Richard," Johanna said, and her voice was devoid of any emotion.

That scared Richard Backlot more than anything. Had she been frightened, he would have taken it upon himself to try and comfort or reassure her.

She looked at him, eyes dark with fury. "That's the phantom thief who calls himself Grand Master Rocco. He doesn't come unless he's sent an advance notice to the owner of the residence he visits."

Richard didn't deny it. "I thought it was a prank," he said weakly. The phantom thieves Grand Master Rocco and Seven had been competing with each other over heists throughout the year of 106, something which had sent the richer and upper class of Sinnoh into a half-panicked, half-excited state of frenzy.

And then, after their last heist, which had been on the eve of the New Year of 107, both had suddenly vanished, giving no word or warning of their disappearances. There had been plenty of speculation about the whereabouts and status of the two limelight-seeking thieves, and some conspiracy theories suggested that they had been secretly killed by the owner of the mansion that had been their last stage for battle.

When he had received the letter notifying that Grand Master Rocco would visit his household on the day of his planned party, Richard had written it off as a prank. He appreciated the fine works of art that he purchased, and gave to charity. He wasn't exactly good target material for a gentleman thief. He had even suspected Lucian of sending it as a small joke, as his sister's son had always loved novels with such characters in them and had an odd sense of humour.

He hadn't expected for the actual Grand Master Rocco to show up.

Johanna's jaw set angrily. "If my students," she said. "If my _daughter_ is placed in danger, if they even have a _hair_ on their heads harmed from this, I swear to Dialga, Richard-"

"Understood," he said, and tried not to shake in fear. Johanna was a terrifying woman for good reason.

The famous coordinator nodded, and then turned her angry eyes to the thief at the center of the ballroom.

* * *

"What's going on," Cynthia gritted out as she struggled to move. Dawn tried as well, but found that her legs couldn't move at her brain's command. It felt like something was holding her ankles, preventing her from moving anywhere.

Lucian looked remarkably calm and composed as his eyes swept across the room, lingering at walls and corners. Dawn tried to see where he was looking at, but saw nothing except maybe that glowing stage the thief was standing on. "An interesting blend of reflect, light screen, embargo and what appears to be a specialized version of trick room," he replied after a brief moment of thought. "Except instead of reversing speed, it actually seems to prevent the use of any items. Including, apparently, Poké balls."

Cynthia, who had taken out a luxury ball and had been trying to get it to open, groaned and let her hand drop to her side. "Damn it."

"Language," rebuked Lucian.

"Helios, can you move?" Dawn asked. Her Gallade struggled against an invisible grip holding him in place, but in the end shook his head. Apparently he was as stuck as she was.

"My apologies for interrupting the party," the phantom thief said, his voice resonating through the room as he walked down a flight of glowing stairs from his stage. "But, in all fairness, I did send a notice."

"What do you want?" a brave, daring person shouted defiantly. Dawn saw cropped but vibrant red hair, and realized that it was Zoey. She cringed, worried about her mom's student.

Grand Master Rocco didn't take offense to that. In fact, his smile, politely curving his lips, widened further. "That's a good question, Miss."

The lights in the room dimmed. Or, rather, not so much as dimmed as suddenly the shadows in the room grew stronger and darker, elongating to fill more of the room's space. The cold chills that had surrounded her when the odd block of some kind came over her feet grew stronger, and Dawn shuddered, feeling the blood in her veins turn icy. Her skin felt like it was trying to crawl off her very bones.

Grand Master Rocco's smile, just visible under the intricate mask he wore that covered the top part of his face, turned slightly more sinister. "What I want is revenge," he said softly, but they all heard the words, and felt the added chill from them. "Because, you see, once upon a time, I had a rival. He was a rather uncouth fellow, unable to enjoy the finer points in life, but he was a worthy opponent nonetheless. One that I very much enjoyed clashing wits with. He was a gentleman at heart, and an honourable person where it counted."

"Phantom Thief Seven," Richard Backlot said, voicing what everyone thought.

Dawn didn't have much interest in phantom thieves – neither she nor her mom were the kinds of people to stock up on valuables really worth a phantom thief's time and efforts – but even she knew about the famous bouts between the two. Although there had been only three challenges between the two thieves, each dare, more magnificent and difficult than the last, had garnered a huge amount of public interest, from both in and out of Sinnoh.

And then it had stopped at the end of last year. Some had presumed that one or both phantom thieves had died, due to the abrupt nature of the halt.

Clearly, at least one was alive. But from the way he was talking, it sounded like Seven really was gone.

"Ah, so you remember him. Good. Because you see, after the last time we clashed, the phantom thief Seven was killed." He looked across the room, eyes cold as an ice-type attack. "Which is why I've come out of my hiatus at last, so I could carry out his vengeance in his stead."

Mr. Backlot sputtered, paling dramatically in terror. "It – it wasn't me!" he cried out, sounding very afraid. While gentleman thieves supposedly had this code about not hurting or killing people, Dawn thought that the rich man had a very good reason to be fearful – the atmosphere in the ballroom was getting darker, both literally and metaphorically.

"No," Rocco agreed, and his eyes slid over everyone else in the room. He turned his back on Backlot, and faced the fourth quadrant of the room, where there were a few groups of people, one of which was Dawn's group of four. "Not you."

Someone screamed as glowing red eyes emerged from shadows. Giggling softly, the Mismagius began mumbling something in raspy tongue as the ragged, wispy edges of its 'robe' began fluttering back and forth in a wind no one else could feel.

Dawn let out a groan of pain when the invisible grip around her ankles tightened. If that hold got any stronger, she was afraid that some of the bones in her ankles would end up broken.

Helios whipped his head back and looked at her in alarm, and then at his own legs. His red eyes narrowed dangerously, and he extended both his arm blades with a sharp, unsheathing sound. Both the sound and the action drew everyone's attentions, including Rocco's.

Realizing that he had very little time before the threat made a move, Helios gritted his teeth, fell forwards in a kneel, and, blades streaked with the dark energy of a night slash, slashed at his lower legs diagonally.

"Helios!" Dawn cried at the same time a deep bass boomed out in pain, making Rocco hesitate in alarm. Shadows shaped – rather disturbingly – like fingers, suddenly visible against the white of her Gallade's legs, fell writhing to the ground and faded away into nothing as they lost their sentience. Helios straightened up, and, ignoring the self-imposed wounds on his ankles, lunged towards the phantom thief, fully intent on taking him out.

Said thief, however, didn't look too scared, and the reason for his confidence became very clear. Another Gallade lunged forth, exiting the shadows in the way to the thief, and threw a bladed arm towards Helios, who was forced to stop his charge and raise his own arms to block it from hitting his head.

Behind Helios, the shadows darkened, and then rose up before surging to strike his unguarded back. He let out a cry of surprise and pain, but still held his ground. His fists, held near the enemy Gallade's face, suddenly burst into large flames each, making him back away instinctively.

Helios didn't miss the chance to aim a kick towards the foe. The other Gallade slid back and dodged the blow easily, but it helped get his enemy further away, which was what Helios had been after in the first place.

And then, fists covered in flames and arm blades extended, Helios began to slowly move them in rhythmic fashion, the blades on his arms glowing with a steady, deliberate light.

Swords dance, Dawn realized as the other Gallade ran towards Helios, before she set her jaw. If her Pokémon was going to give it his all, then she couldn't just sit back and watch him fight like a helpless princess trapped in a tower.

"Helios, confusion!"

Both Gallade had their arm blades locked by the other, and despite his best efforts, the fire punches weren't reaching his foe. Helios let his eyes glow a bright blue before he unleashed the bolt of psychic energy right into his opponent's face. It didn't do much, but it made him falter –

Just enough for Helios to step back and throw a powerful fire punch at his torso. The other Gallade huffed when the air was knocked out of his lungs by the burning impact, but he straightened and flexed his muscles, enveloping his body in an orange light briefly before it faded into his green and white skin.

"That looks like bulk up," Lucian noted from the side. "So he's simultaneously raising his attack and defense . . . smart of him, given that his opponent is also a Gallade."

"Shadow sneak!" Rocco ordered, and the foe Gallade dove into the shadows like a ghost would.

"Helios," Dawn said, and then paused. She had no idea where that other Gallade would pop out of next like some psychic Dugtrio, and Helios couldn't very well follow after him.

But maybe . . . maybe they could light it up a little.

"The biggest fire punches you can, towards the ground!"

Fists wrapped in large balls of fire, Helios fell to his knees, and lit up the carpeted area around his feet. All the shadows around him shrunk from stretched shades to small, clearly focused silhouettes.

With the carpet around his feet alit by flames, Helios got back to his feet, and then was thrown out of his circle of fire when one of the focused shadows suddenly ripped free from the ground and solidified into a vine-like feature before ensnaring one of his ankles and chucking him out carelessly. He landed on his back and hissed in pain.

Out of a stretched shadow a little away from Helios – and the fire he had set – the enemy Gallade emerged. Helios got back to his feet, grimacing briefly before schooling his features.

Dawn grimaced as well. His legs were still hurt from the night slash he had used to free himself from whatever had been binding him.

"Psycho cut!"

They had to take out that Gallade, and do so with minimal movement.

Helios swung his blades, and let loose a barrage of psychic crescents all aimed at the Gallade. Each one, powered by the swords dance he had snuck in earlier, were glowing fiercely with extra energy.

"Fury cutter!"

The foe Gallade, lifting his arms, almost danced in the way he cut and parried. Each movement was precise, and had no wasted energy as he shattered the psychic blades coming his way.

"Psycho cut as well," Rocco added. "Storm of Swords version."

The other Gallade raised his arms, and ten blades made out of psychic energy, shaped like claymores, materialized around him. He threw his arm forth like he was hurling a javelin, and in response the psycho cuts shaped like swords flew towards Helios.

Cries came from their audience as Helios seemed to succeed at dodging all ten, only to be hit from the back when the swords made a sharp turn and dropped down like an executioner's blade. Seven of them ended up demolishing the ground around Helios, but three made a direct hit, leaving Helios trembling as he stood.

With this 'storm of swords' version of psycho cut, the foe had more control than Helios did over his own psycho cut. It didn't seem to last long once it had made contact with something, be it Pokémon or the ground, same as their own basic psycho cut, but in other areas the thief and his Gallade had the advantage over them.

But for that kind of control while maintaining the elaborate shape of those manifested swords, it had to come at the cost of some intense concentration. The other Gallade could have tried to close the distance between him and Helios while he dodged the storm of swords, but he hadn't, instead staying where he was with his eyes glowing green.

While the two Gallade circled each other, surrounded by shadows and murmurs from the people watching, Dawn thought furiously. Helios didn't have very many ranged moves in his skill set. Most times, they relied on his teleportation to move around and sneak up on the opponent to make up for it.

"Can you teleport?" she asked as quietly as she could when he was closest to her. She needed to know what they had to work with. None of her other Pokémon were available to help, and Helios was on his own. They needed every last bit they could get. "Not outside – just to a different part of the room."

Either it was possible for Helios to do so, or Rocco – who apparently had heard with some very sharp hearing – didn't want to take chances, because he immediately gave the next order. "Mean look!"

The foe Gallade glared, and a transparent image of a maliciously glaring eye flew towards Helios. He scrunched his own eyes shut tight in concentration, struggling to access the psychic transport, when a string of golden runes erupted around his body out of thin air, warding off the blocking spell long enough for him to manage to teleport.

That hadn't come from Helios. Taken aback, both she and Rocco glanced around the ballroom, searching for the source.

Golden light drew Dawn's eyes to the shiny Kirlia standing behind Lisia and Brendan. Her two blue arms were glowing gold, and raised to the ceiling. She would have to thank them both for the help later.

"A Ralts family battle," Lucian noted while some in the audience cheered at the unexpected ally. Surely now the odds would shift in their favour.

Except they had all forgotten about Rocco having more than one Pokémon himself. The Mismagius that had appeared earlier – and disappeared into the shadows when the two battling Gallade took the spotlight, out of everyone's sight – formed out of the darkness directly in front of the Kirlia. Before the blue-haired psychic could try and fight back, it was struck by a powerful shadow ball that immediately knocked it unconscious. The witch disappeared once more with a low chuckle as Lisia, grimacing, reached for her unconscious Pokémon.

Helios, however, had not let his temporary ally's help go unused. He had teleported directly behind his foe, and was swinging with the velocity he had picked up from the rapid movement across the room. The other Gallade spun around, raising his blades to block Helios in a switch of roles from earlier on.

"Leaf blade!" Dawn shouted, and Helios swung with both arms glowing the green of grass-type energy.

The foe Gallade feinted to the right, and then stepped right in between both arms before knocking them away in a smooth move that left Helios briefly stunned in surprise.

"Fury cutter!" Rocco barked. It looked like their foe was coming in close quarters, no longer going for the fancy light route of things like storm of swords. There went the plan to try and sneak up from behind while their enemy was concentrating.

"Fire punch, one arm!" Dawn shouted, mind feeling scrambled and stressed, but luckily, Helios understood. He raised his right arm, alit with fire, and barely stopped the fury cutter from landing the consecutive cuts on his body.

Still, when the two Gallade were fighting each other directly, it was easy to see the smooth movements of the foe Gallade, and the precise, controlled swordsmanship he had. Compared to that, Helios, who was one of her more graceful Pokémon, looked rough, like a stereotypical fighting-type. A master swordsman versus a street-fighting brawler. And in most cases like this, the winner was pretty obvious.

The thought grated at Dawn, who knew how hard her gallant Gallade worked in an effort to be like a knight, and she was sure it grated on Helios as well. She could see it in his extra tensed shoulders, and the way he tried to execute his own attacks as smoothly as his foe's.

She wanted to tell him that he was perfect on his own, that he didn't need to worry right now, but at the moment, that was a luxury she didn't have, what with Rocco throwing out orders in a rapid, almost careless manner.

"Night slash!"

"Rock smash!"

"Psycho cut!"

Mespirit, what was she supposed to even – "Return!" she screamed, frustrated not only at the thief, but also scared for her Pokémon and everyone here and just seriously annoyed at the elemental rock-paper-scissors this guy had decided to start with her.

Helios was tired. His legs hurt – he had clearly hurt himself a little too much in his efforts to cut loose and fight the thief, and that shadow attack from before hadn't helped his case at all – and this other Gallade was pushing him to his limits. His foe was a superior swordsman to him, easily matching his every two hits for one swing of his arm blades, expending far less energy in foiling his attacks.

But Helios wasn't letting this Gallade, or his thief of an owner hurt Dawn for the sake some revenge he didn't know anything about, and had absolutely no interest in.

Channeling every bit of affection, loyalty and devotion he felt towards the blue-haired human girl, he threw his body forwards, fists flailing. There was no technique involved with this attack, no fancy skill taught by Jackie the Medicham here. This was just raw emotion and feelings converting into the energy that was fueling his strikes.

Surprised at the sheer intensity of the surge, the foe Gallade dropped his guard for a split second and was almost overcome by the hits Helios landed on him. The first punch struck him in his left shoulder, the second just below the red horn on his chest, and the third above it.

Almost. But not quite fully overcome.

Before Helios could land the fourth hit, the foe Gallade dropped into the shadows, making him stumble at the sudden lack of a target. He jumped sideways, expecting an attack from behind him again, but was surprised when the other Gallade emerged from the same spot where he had dropped into.

Rocco's next words were almost like an order for an execution, and just as horrifying for Dawn. "Aerial ace."

"Helios!" Dawn cried, and would have probably called for a teleport, or maybe an ice or thunder punch, but the foe Gallade was already in action. Like he had wings fueling his speed, he practically flew forwards, and struck Helios in the same places the return had hit with arms wrapped in blades of air.

Then, after the third hit, almost as if he was adding insult to injury, another solidified shadow flew up from the ground and struck him in a ghostly uppercut to his chin. His head flew back, and Dawn shrieked into her hands in fear that his neck might have broken from the force of the blow.

Helios staggered back, and crouched forwards, for a moment looking like he was ready to fight once more. He glared at his foe ferociously, and in response his opponent tensed, looking ready to dive back into the shadows.

Then, Helios collapsed, first onto his knees before the rest of his body followed.

While the other Gallade made his way over to the burning patch of carpet left by Helios and began extinguishing the flames with some firm steps that were too lithe to be called stomps, the thief who called himself the 'Grand Master' began walking towards Helios.

"Stop!" Dawn screamed, and very nearly fell flat onto her face. She would have, if Lucian hadn't grabbed and steadied her by her shoulders. She would have to remember to thank him later for his support. "Don't you dare touch him, or I swear to Mespirit-"

Grand Master Rocco stopped. "Very well, then," he said, and sped up his walking pace so that he was marching over to Dawn.

She gulped, scared, but stood her ground and narrowed her eyes, channeling her best 'Johanna Steele' glare. She was a Steele, and above that right now, a trainer. It was her job to keep her Pokémon safe.

And if he got within her reach, she'd punch him between his legs. Happily, too.

Much to her disappointment, he stayed just out of her reaching distance, unconsciously foiling her violent plans. "I suppose it would be rude to not let the trainer administer the medicine herself," he said, handing her –

A pink rose he pulled out of his sleeve.

Wait, what?

Flabbergasted, Dawn automatically reached out and accepted the rose before she quite thought about what she was doing.

"It was a truly magnificent battle, Young Miss," the masked thief said with a crooked smile. She might have developed a crush if she wasn't so miffed at him for the current situation. "Your battling spirit is superb. Please don't ever lose it."

She looked at the rose, and found a small, pale yellow crystal imbedded into the center of the overlapping petals. A revive shard.

Dawn snapped her head back up to stare at the thief, suddenly not really sure what was going on, but he had already turned around with a whirl of his cape.

"Now, where was I before that battle?" he asked the rest of that room rhetorically. "Right. Vengeance." His smile dropped.

Everyone in the room tensed, waiting for an attack of some kind, but it didn't come in the shape or form they expected.

"A warning to everyone," he said solemnly. "There is a sinister organization in Sinnoh operating in the shadows. And if anything – or anyone – gets in the way of their goals, they will not hesitate to try and get rid of them. In our last match against each other, Seven and I found ourselves ambushed by honourless cravens. Be careful of them, and don't let them draw you into their plans, no matter what they promise you. They will use you, and abandon you the moment your usefulness expires."

Rocco raised one arm, and a Gardevoir teleported behind him, dropping a fibreglass case with an old-looking book into his hand. It looked heavy, but he caught and held it steadily.

"As for me," he said, voice growing not only in volume but also passion. His arm stayed raised, adding onto his dramatic appearance. "Let me declare in front of everyone here that I oppose them fully with all my heart and soul, and will do anything I can to interfere with their plans! On my name of Grand Master Rocco, your bloody hands and greedy hearts will not be left unpunished!"

"Isn't that the book your uncle bought?!" Cynthia hissed to Lucian, eyes looking wild with fury and surprise.

Lucian himself looked a little taken aback himself at the turn of events. "Yes," he said. "Looks like you won't get to read it yourself."

Cynthia groaned.

"Mr. Backlot," Rocco said, voice calmer and more controlled. "I assume that you've had offers for this book?"

"Huh?" Mr. Backlot stammered. "Ah, yes. A few museums and some private collectors-"

"Apologies," Rocco interrupted smoothly, and Mr. Backlot's words died out. "Normally I'd target items such as jewels or artwork, but I'm afraid that this is a personal matter. I'll be taking this book, if only so it won't fall into _their_ hands."

Mr. Backlot let his hands fall helplessly to his side. On one hand, he probably wanted to protest. On the other hand, he was a sympathetic man who understood bonds of friendship.

Rocco apparently didn't want to be seen as the bad guy while avenging his rival's death. "When the organization is gone," he promised, "I'll return this book to your possession once more. Till then."

The stage shattered into golden light fragments that bounced off the ground and disintegrated into fading sparkles. Its dying lights were the only visible thing in the darkness that fell as suddenly as it had at the thief's entrance. When the room was lit once more, Rocco and his Pokémon had all vanished.

And, they could move again.

Dawn immediately ran towards Helios.

* * *

The police came to the scene within minutes once they were able to call for them. By then, it was far too late to even dream of catching Grand Master Rocco, but they took down statements and examined the 'scene of the crime' before leaving to try and track him down.

Dawn ended up not using the revive Rocco had left her. She had to hand it – and the rose it was nestled in – to the police so they could process it for evidence. It was probably for the best, seeing as how she didn't exactly want to use any medicine given to her by a stranger on her Pokémon. Cynthia, though, was quick to give her another revive shard, letting Helios recover sooner than later.

Much to both her and Helios' surprises, they found themselves surrounded by admirers. Everyone told them in admiring words just how 'brave' and 'amazing' they had been to fight the phantom thief.

Lisia, once her Pokémon had also been restored back to health, bound up to Dawn and hugged her with a grip nearly as tight as the one her mom would squeeze her with right after.

"I was so worried about you," she said into her ear. Behind her, Dawn saw Helios bow deeply in gratitude to the shiny Kirlia who had cast a lucky chant to help his teleportation. He flushed when the Kirlia pressed a kiss to his cheek in reply and patted his arm.

Dawn hugged back. "We're okay," she said, because they were. Their pride was a bit hurt, but they were okay. "And thank you and your Kirlia for helping us."

Lisia laughed weakly. "That was mostly Rhiannon. I was useless." She gave one last squeeze before relinquishing her to Johanna, who had, after giving her own statement to the police, finally managed to get through the crowd with a few subtly acidic looks.

"To be fair," Dawn began speaking before her mom could. "I think Helios did a very brave and noble thing and should be commended, not punished for it. Especially given the circumstances. And, er, the understanding and interpretation of some words." She was improvising, and doing so very badly.

Instead of scolding her, Johanna just hugged her very tightly. "I'm glad you and Helios are safe," her mom said to her. "Otherwise I'm not sure what I'd have done."

Now _that_ was an even scarier thought – her mom going on a furious rampage. Dawn wasn't sure if any part of Sinnoh would have been left undisturbed by Johanna's wrath. "All's well that ends well?" Dawn offered, choking out the words. "Mom – can't breathe. Dying."

Johanna let her go, but stroked her hair softly with a relieved smile. "I guess now you have an excuse to avoid parties," she joked.

Dawn snickered, and inwardly made a note to do exactly that if she ever didn't feel like going somewhere. Looked like there was still a lot of good things that had come out of this.

Lucian and Cynthia approached them when the crowd thinned out around them, people ready to go home once the police had finished taking down statements and asking questions. With them – making Helios tense in surprise – was another Gallade.

Not the same one with Rocco, obviously, but for a brief moment both Dawn and Helios had panicked.

If he noticed their flash of discomfort, the Gallade showed no signs of it.

"Hi, Lucian, Cynthia," she said with a wan smile. She was beginning to strain from the whole night's experiences, and her usual smile she used as a mask was starting to crack.

Cynthia and Lucian both gave her an understanding look. "You both handled yourselves wonderfully," Cynthia said gently, and ended it at that instead of piling her with the same praises others had.

"If you're not too tired," Lucian said, his tone direct. Dawn appreciated that. "I was hoping to talk to you two."

Dawn glanced at the Gallade. He stood closer to Lucian, so she assumed he was with him. "About . . . ?" she trailed off, very deliberately looking at the psychic fighter.

"Yes," Lucian said, answering her unasked question. "This is Reagan, my Gallade. Reagan, Helios and Dawn."

Helios appraised the slightly taller Gallade. Reagan's arm blades might have been slightly longer as well, but otherwise it was like a mirror image as the two psychic fighters stood and looked at each other with their identical red eyes.

"I'm a psychic trainer," Lucian said as Helios and his Gallade began communicating. "I've always found psychic-types to be some of the most fascinating Pokémon in the world, able to do so much with the power of their mind alone. I believe that they are both the closest and yet the farthest from humans, in-"

Cynthia gave a pointed fake cough, and Lucian snapped out of it. "Apologies," he said sheepishly, pale cheeks flooding with a bit of colour. "I have a tendency to talk on and on about the virtues of psychic-types." Clearly, this was not the first time he had been reminded to get back on track.

Dawn grinned.

Lucian continued, more on track now. "I am a trainer myself, but not very active nowadays. I find it . . . tiring to be constantly travelling, and I've never liked battling in front of a crowd like tournaments require me to do. I still love Pokémon and battling, however, which is why I have been thinking of running a class of sorts exclusively for psychic Pokémon."

Smile slightly fading, Dawn blinked. She could guess where this was going.

"As of now, the idea is but in its fledgling state. I would like to see if this idea has any merit by teaching a few select psychic Pokémon not only how to battle, but also skills specific to its species, abilities and natural talents, as well as how to manipulate and control its own psychic powers, such as teleporting, telepathy and sensors."

"You want Helios," Dawn guessed, jumping right to the point.

"Not permanently," Lucian corrected. "I believe six months will be sufficient to teach him the basics, and the rest will be all up to him, both in the effort he puts in to develop and his genetic disposition. And only as a student. I've always been fond of the Ralts line, particularly Gallade, and your Gallade demonstrated incredible will and talent – even if it's rather raw. I take it he hasn't had any formal training for blade-work?"

No, he had not, unless Lucian counted sparring with Neptune and his metal claw. Which she doubted.

But not wanting to say that, she shook her head.

"You've done incredibly well at such a young age," Lucian said, and strangely enough, there was no note of patronization in his voice. He was being honest. "But I am an expert, and I can guarantee leaps and bounds of improvement."

"Don't forget," Cynthia interrupted. "The choice belongs to you and your Gallade. Don't let him strong-arm you into doing something you don't feel comfortable with. Lucian, are you going to be charging her money for this?"

"Of course not." Lucian sounded offended that his friend would expect such a thing from him. "It's a trial of sorts."

"You could have mentioned that earlier," Cynthia reprimanded him.

He looked slightly embarrassed. "It didn't occur to me at first," he admitted.

* * *

"Greetings."

The older Gallade's voice was cool, but polite.

Helios nodded. "Greetings," he replied. "I must say, I did not expect . . . to be met with another Gallade so soon after what happened."

His fellow Gallade grinned. "I suppose you didn't," he said, amused. "I am Reagan."

"Helios."

"It seems to be a fitting name." Reagan looked to Dawn. "Your trainer?" he asked. "Your bonds with her are strong."

"Thank you." Helios kept it short and brief. They both fell silent to listen to Lucian talk, and what he heard surprised Helios. Proper instruction in bettering himself?

A part of him was slightly offended at the insinuation that Dawn hadn't trained him well, but if he was being objective and honest with himself, Helios knew, deep down, that while Dawn had done her best, she was not an expert on swordsmanship or Gallade training. And that had shown through his clash with the thief's Gallade.

Helios glanced towards Dawn. As usual, her emotions were easy to read, broadcasted as strongly as they were. Her aura was as positive as ever, but it was run with currents of uncertainty and doubt.

"Your trainer has a very powerful presence," noted Reagan. "And yet no Sight."

Helios nodded distractedly. Dawn was reluctant to let him go, but at the same time she thought that this might be a good opportunity.

Not for her, though. For him. She thought that he would benefit greatly from the experience. But she wasn't willing to push him into it if he didn't want to do it.

She was willing, he realized, to lose the chance to get a much stronger Gallade – actually kick that chance away herself – all based on what he wanted.

"If I go with you and your trainer," Helios heard himself say out loud. "Will you be able to help me grow more powerful?"

"Not just powerful," was the reply. "We can refine your skills so that you will be a master of the blades, and a knight capable of wielding the arcane magic our counterparts use – albeit more in the physical sense. Master Lucian has informed me of what he has observed regarding your teleportation skills in the recent bout – would he be correct in guessing that short bouts are more of your specialty?"

He nodded. He wasn't confident with the idea of going a long distance, or taking someone along with him.

"Your skills as a battler wouldn't be the only aspect of you we would work on. We would also teach you how to be more fluent in navigating through teleportation, refine your sensing abilities and telepathy skills, and more."

A part of him – a large part – didn't want to leave Dawn and the team. While initially Selene had been the only one he had stuck close to because she was family while the rest were virtually strangers, he had grown close to the others, from the random but cheerful Themis to the quietly deep Medusa. Soon they had become family as well – and he would miss them dearly.

And, of course, he would miss being in Dawn's warm presence – his trainer glowed like a warm campfire usually, and was as bright as a second sun when her emotions were particularly intense. Being in her presence had done wonders for him, he knew.

But . . . .

While everyone commended him on fighting the phantom thief's Pokémon, and Miss Rhiannon seemed impressed with his performance, Helios didn't forget for one moment that he had lost the battle of the blades.

And, shamefully, this wasn't his first loss in an important situation, or the first time he had let Dawn down. He had lost without taking down a single foe in his first gym battle, and had to avoid battling in Pastoria after evolving and training for that very gym because his carelessness led to him getting injured right before the challenge. He had failed to protect Dawn from that thief, and she could have very nearly died had the thief's intentions been anything darker.

Dawn never complained or been bitter about it, of course. She wasn't the type of human to obsess about the failures – instead, she sought out opportunities and strengths. And somehow, that made him feel worse about his failures.

Truth was, he felt rather inadequate and shortcoming. If this was a chance for him to grow better, to become strong enough so that he would be able to stand as equals with the rest of the team and protect Dawn, then he would take it.

"Helios?" Dawn asked. The humans had finished talking, and now it was decision time.

And it was all up to him.

He began to bow, and then straightened, abandoning all formalities, and threw his arms around her neck to hug her tightly. He tried to be careful to not stab her with the red horn on his chest, but she understood what he meant by the hug, and hugged him back without caring much about possibly injuring herself.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she told him, sounding like she was about to cry.

That nearly made him reconsider – he didn't want to make her _cry_ – but then he hardened his resolve. This was for her. And sometimes, to do something for somebody, you had to go through painful experiences.

He released her and looked at Dawn with solemn eyes, sending her a wave of determination, and she understood.

Instead of bursting into tears – she was too strong for that – she raised a hand and held it in a fist towards him. "Promise you'll come back?"

He raised his own fist and bumped it against hers, nodding firmly. He would come back, when he was strong enough.

Dawn nodded, and gave him a slightly sad but genuine smile. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been a better trainer," she apologized. "I'll see you in six months." Then, she turned to Lucian. "You'll take good care of him?" she asked firmly, not quite demanding but leaving no room for an answer she wouldn't find acceptable.

"Of course," Lucian replied.

"I'll make sure he does," Cynthia promised from the side.

Lucian gave her a business card, Dawn hugged Helios one last time, and then handed his Poké ball to Lucian. "I'll call," she swore, clutching the small piece of thick paper hard in her hand.

"Please do," Lucian replied. "I'd like to discuss what he learns, and any improvements he makes."

Then, it was time to go. She kept a smiling face for Helios until they had been teleported back home, where she promptly ran straight to her room and moped for the rest of the evening.

* * *

After leaving Raffles the Gallade and Garrett the Dusknoir – one injured from battle, the other suffering from wounds to his fingers, both hurt by the same Pokémon – into the care of a nurse who was sworn to secrecy, Rocco made his way towards the meeting room. Their team never used those official, formal conference rooms that looked like a meeting place for evil overlords plotting to take over the world through dastardly methods, something he was always grateful and appreciative of. Instead, the room was pretty cozy, with many books on an assortment of subjects, stuffed chairs that were absolutely delightful to sit in and plenty of snacks.

The gentleman thief Grand Master Rocco swept in, shedding the last part of his costume – the gloves – and then promptly collapsed into the nearest large, cushy armchair, exhausted and drained.

"Gah," Erik Junker said, divested of all his phantom thief gear and apparel and nearly shuddering from the night's memories. Especially towards the end of the evening when he had been facing down his opponent, a deceptively short girl with a terrifying gaze that could have probably made a Gyarados cower in fear. "Little girls should _not_ be that scary."

Lily wasn't there – she had to go back to her apartment and keep up her cover as someone who had nothing to do with Grand Master Rocco to maintain her role as a mole in Galactic Corporations – but Nancy was, and bless her kind soul and beautiful heart, she immediately handed him a cup of warm milk and a pastry before patting his head in a motherly manner and retreating to let him have his moment with the midnight snacks before the debriefing began.

"Apologies," Lucian said, and Erik nearly spilt his cup of milk all over his lap. He hadn't seen the psychic man in the room from his initial sweep.

Curse that man and his unpredictability, his sneakiness. He could catch even thieves off their guards.

Lucian continued to speak like Erik hadn't reacted. "I was told that Dawn Steele was a remarkable battler, but I myself had never witnessed her in action, and hadn't thought to mark her as a potential threat in the briefing file. Still, perhaps if you hadn't so blatantly been glaring in Io's direction, her Gallade might not have mistaken your hostility as something threatening to her and attacked you in the first place."

Erik ignored the later part of Lucian's sentence, since that was essentially could-have's and things he didn't need to hear about in polite words hiding daggers. Steele? Damn the members of that family, always throwing his plans off and making things harder than they should have been.

Besides, it had all ended well. Instead of the simple plan of going in there, announcing his return and warning everyone before vanishing off into the night – a rather boring return – the return had been celebrated with an epic battle, and his point had gotten across. Things had been spiced up a bit more, so there really wasn't cause for too much concern or complaint.

Erik balanced his plate and shrugged, sipping at his milk. "Eh," he said nonchalantly, wanting to brush off the issue before _he_ came in and joined them. "No one would have thought she was a threat. She's a tiny thing."

"You got your ass kicked by a little girl?" a new voice said, joining in on the discussion. A voice that could easily annoy both Grand Master Rocco and his civilian alter ego.

Damn it all. Scowling, Erik turned to face the former Seven. "Henri, I swear to Palkia-"

Nancy clapped her hands together. "Boys, behave," she said warningly, offering Henri a hand.

He waved her away, and chose to limp towards the empty seat across Erik on his own, ruined leg be damned. "What did you say her name was?" he asked.

Lucian answered like he was reading off a profile in front of him. He had probably memorized it like he usually did to everything he read. "Dawn Steele. One of the trainers in her age group chosen by Professor Rowan, and the daughter of Johanna Steele. Remarkable girl – she's already won five badges, and she hasn't even been journeying for a full year. Professor Rowan speaks very highly of her, which is an accomplishment in itself."

Henri's look turned pensive. Erik didn't buy it. "How old did you say she was?"

"I didn't," Lucian said with a wry smile, already recognizing where this was going. "But I believe she's thirteen."

The former Seven grinned widely. "Rocco," he said dramatically. "You lost to a thirteen year old girl!"

That bastard would never let it go. Erik made a face. "She's pretty good," he said, even if he himself knew that his defense was horribly weak.

As expected, Henri did not let it go. "You lost to a thirteen year old _girl_!"

"What's wrong with being a girl?" Nancy scowled down at Henri, who immediately recognized the line he had crossed and backed out of the danger zone as fast as he could.

"Nothing. Just saying."

Lucian spoke up before Nancy could chew Henri out, but his eyes were twinkling in mischief. "In her defense, her Gallade put up a grand fight against Raffles. I think if he had used swords dance instead of bulk up, the outcome of the match could have been very different."

"Raffles was the one fighting?" Henri's face fell when he realized that it had been _his_ Gallade who had been the Pokémon fighting. While most of his Pokémon still continued to work with Rocco and the team, both parties weren't used to the other's styles. For this heist, Rocco had decided to let the Pokémon do mostly as they would without too much of his guidance. He had only called for Storm of Swords because Lucian had come up with that neat and flashy trick, although admittedly, it hadn't been too practical in use.

Well, at least _now_ Henri would drop it. He couldn't insult Erik without insulting Raffles. And even more so when it hadn't been Erik who had brought it up.

Erik hid his grin behind his cup of milk. His cheer died, though, when he saw Henri briefly wince in pain and reach for the stump of his missing leg.

No one had seen the ambush coming. In retrospect, Erik admitted that the entire team had been cocky, not expecting anyone else to know about the secret passageways allowing them entrance and exit to the target. Had it not been for Bookie's well-trained psychics that could teleport their way out of almost any block that usually worked, the two of them would both be dead and buried six feet under. As it was, he was healthy, while Henri, the former Seven . . . .

While Henri had – thank all the legendaries in Sinnoh's large pantheon for the miracle – survived the attack, it hadn't been without its price. His leg had looked like it had been shoved through a hamburger grinder when they had managed to escape their assailants, some people lying in wait with the intent to kill somehow masked from Lupin's aura-sensing abilities till it was too late.

With his right leg amputated – there had been no way to save it – there was going to be no more of Seven running around. That persona was as good as dead. Murdered.

It had devastated everyone on the team, from Lily, grieving about her brother's loss, to Erik himself, who felt immensely guilty for Seven having taken the attack that he would have walked into had things gone a little differently.

But it was Henri that never got depressed or down from the loss of his limb. In fact, once Phantom Thief Seven was dead and Henri Sutherland had gone through six months of rehab, it was almost as if he had grown happier than before. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and chest. And, literally, off his leg.

Now, he mostly worked as technical support with Nancy on the team, while Rocco and Lily handled fieldwork. He helped plan out heists, and Erik had to admit, Henri did have a good head for this kind of job when he wanted to.

Still, happier or not, there was no way Erik was letting the bastards responsible for it get away. They were getting locked up, every last one of them.

"So," Erik said, leaning back and resting his back, relaxing from its previous tensed state now that this heist was finished and done with. "What's the subject of the fantastic treasure that starred alongside me in my grand return?"

Lucian glanced at the old text lying in the protective glass case. It written in ancient Sinnohan – hard for him to read at his full speed, although not impossible to decipher if he and Cynthia worked on it together. He doubted that they would actually have to translate it themselves, but if they ever needed to, they could.

The paper itself was old, but Pre-Indigo Johtoan-made, meaning that it was strong, durable, and capable of lasting a very long time despite its deceiving thinness. The pages were bound together by what had been identified as triple-twisted silk from Silcoon. That, and the fact it had been found in the excavated ruins of Southern Sinnoh, all pointed to signs that this was from the Sinjoh Ruins, or at least somewhere near that time and place.

The book itself wasn't exactly something that held a great secret – at least, not that he knew of, based on modern translations his uncle had seen fit to acquire along with the original volume. As far as scholars hired by Richard Backlot had figured out while translating it (and saved he and Cynthia from having to work more than they needed to), the book contained stories of the gods. More specifically, Dialga and Palkia.

And it wasn't holy words, or teachings, or the philosophy Dialga and Palkia had left – the two gods had left relatively few of those, as guiding mortal lives and development had been something more up the Spirit Trio's alley – that this book held. Those could be found in the Book of Spirits.

This was more along the lines of stories describing the 'daily lives', so to say, about the gods. What they did, how they interacted with mortals.

Lucian called it folklore. Cynthia – jokingly – called it a gossip magazine peeking into the lives of Sinnoh's gods.

The content had been made clear, courtesy of his uncle, so there was no confusion on what its contents would be about, only wording and authenticity. And yet, Lily had found that this was what Io had been after.

Another diversion? Or was there something hidden in these old pages that Galactic knew about and were after? In fear that this was a trap to identify any moles, Lucian had called in the special forces he had helped create (jokingly but accurately dubbed the 'Phantom Thief Squad') so they could pass the robbery off as something unrelated to Lily and keep her cover safe a little longer, but he hoped that this was something Galactic was actually interested in. Perhaps they'd show more of their hand if pressed enough.

"Stories about Dialga and Palkia," he answered the question. He'd have to look into it himself.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Sekhmet (Luxray), Faith (Eevee), Frejya (Lopunny)

_Home:_ Neptune (Empoleon), Themis (Golbat), Medusa (Tangrowth)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mime. Jr), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash)

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

AN: (sorry for the second upload there was a problem with formatting)

I had no idea some of you were secretly trolls. Good to know in advance.

Lucian is Backlot's nephew because he looks like a rich boy, and he likes to read. Backlot collects valuable things, including old books.

Son of a Muk is inspired by Alphinia's Touching the Sky.

For those who didn't know, I used to write in a fandom where a Phantom Thief is quite popular and appears frequently. Blame my past for the phantom thief throw-in.

Honestly, though, I think phantom thieves in Pokémon would be so fun, seeing what some Pokémon are supposed to be capable of. Phantom Thief 7 was interesting, and I really wish I could read the whole thing as well as its sequel.

Also, name changes were made because Japanese didn't really fit the whole setting, and I really didn't want some random characters to pop up with clashing names. Hence Seven/Hiori being renamed Henri, and Nazuna Nancy. I'll do this in the future as well for other characters with Japanese only names. Koya was Koya because that was more of a last name and he was Interpol, but for the others, this is the way I'm going.

Finally, regions. Someone suggested that I make Orre more of an Australia or Phoenix rather than NK. Thank you for your input, and I think I should clarify: When I said NK, I was referring more to its government system (dictatorship passed down through family). For its climate it probably _will_ be more like Australia or Phoenix, because I agree, NK climate probably does not look like canonical Orre.

However, the regions won't ever be 'exactly' like one country (except maybe Unova and Kalos, and even those two I'll probably add some spin). Partially because I don't believe I'll be able to do them full justice (and end up insulting someone), and partly because this is, technically, an alternate world. I'll be drawing _inspiration_ from other countries for world-building, but it won't be _identical_ to real-life countries (Ex: as many people noticed last chapter, Kanto, despite drawing a lot of inspiration here from Britain/the British Empire, will not be exactly like it and have other elements as well).


	28. Joys in Winter

A.S.107

December 22nd

_For Yule I got a lot of great gifts - but my favourite is the egg._

* * *

It was snowing in Jubilife during the ceremony, and the city's air made it so that there was gray slush everywhere in the streets, but no one complained out loud. Instead, they stood in somber-coloured clothing, white ribbons pinned to their clothes as the important figures ahead paid their respects in front of the memorial. White Gracidea flowers lay in bouquets, along with candles whose flames wavered in the gusts of wind that cut through every now and then like a cold knife.

Dawn, face half covered by a thick white scarf, could see Professor Rowan and his wife in the front, far to the left. Both were in black, and had their graying heads bowed low while the High Priest of Mespirit spoke about remembering those that had lost their lives, but not letting the memories haunt and tie them down forever from moving on.

Next to her, Johanna silently wiped away a tear from her eyes. Like every year before, she had declined a spot at the front of the memorial, choosing to stay with Dawn and the rest of the crowd gathered. She didn't want to make her grieving a show for the public, and felt that was exactly what it would be if she stepped out front.

Dawn reached out and squeezed her hand, and felt the slightly chilly metal of the ring her mom was wearing for that day. It was hard for her to remember her dad, and she had never really felt that her mom alone wasn't enough, but sometimes Dawn wondered whether she had missed out on not having the man smiling genuinely in all the photographs be a part of her life.

Eventually, the ceremony ended, and everyone dispersed respectfully. Like every year, Dawn felt too cold inside and emotionally drained to stick around any longer in Jubilife. This was the one day that the usually cheerful city was silent and somber, and that felt wrong to her.

They headed home, and Dawn grabbed a thick slice of bread from the kitchen's cupboard before hastily retreating to her room, leaving her mom to watch old videos of her husband and Pokémon.

Faith was the only Pokémon who was small enough to be out, and the Eevee whined upon seeing her face.

Dawn gave her a small smile. "Want some?" she offered, splitting the slice in half and holding out the smaller part.

Faith sniffed it cautiously, and then shook her head before curling up. Dawn joined her, and bit at the bread half-heartedly. It tasted pretty dry. No wonder the Eevee had turned it down.

"It's just," she began. "It feels like it was so long ago, and I almost don't remember anything from it except vague snippets. It was so quick, you know? Sometimes I wonder if I really understood what had happened back then, and just was sad because Mom was."

Faith was quiet.

"And then I feel sad, but not like, crying-sad, more like a sad in the heart, and that doesn't feel like it's enough," Dawn continued. "Is that even appropriate? I feel like I should be sadder, and then I'm not, and that feels just _wrong_."

She'd never told this to her mom, of course. Johanna was usually mother-of-the-year material, but one day out of the year, she withdrew and became an almost entirely different person. Dawn let her have her grieving period, and tried her best not to disturb it.

Soft fur and warmth dug into her stomach. Dawn looked down to see that Faith had snuggled up to her, climbing into her lap so that she could lightly butt at her stomach with her head.

She reached down and stroked her brown fur. "Thanks, Faith," she said, understanding the silent show of support.

* * *

The next morning, Dawn woke up screaming with chilly frost covering her face. Faith yipped in both surprise and indignation as the cold and the scream woke her up as well.

Her mom's Froslass giggled into her snow-white sleeves as Dawn fumbled to wipe the traces of cold off her face. "Ha, ha, Janice," she said crossly as she shivered. "Very funny."

The icy ghost gave her a smug smile, as if to say that she wholeheartedly agreed.

Grumpy from the start of the day but not able to return to sleep again after that freezing wake up call, Dawn climbed out of bed and went downstairs, Faith bouncing after her.

Johanna, who was already up and cooking breakfast, glanced up and smiled. "You have some frost in your hair," she said, gesturing to the sides of her face.

Dawn patted away the leftover bits of iciness in her hair. "A little warning would have been nice," she grumbled, rubbing the residual coldness away.

Her mom shrugged. "I just let her out a few minutes ago. I didn't think she'd go after you that quickly."

It wasn't that Dawn didn't like Janice, or that Janice disliked Dawn. The two of them were pretty close – most of the time.

It was just that Janice had a habit of pranking Dawn whenever she came home. Most of those pranks involved ice, although one year it had been pretending to be a monster hiding under her bed, and reaching out to grab her by her ankles when she was about to go to sleep.

That had terrified Dawn, and even now she was slightly reluctant to look under beds or stand too close to them.

After Johanna had banned her from scaring Dawn that badly, though, Janice stuck to ice-based pranks.

Right behind Dawn, Janice floated on with a giggle. Dawn glared at her, and then stalked off to grab breakfast. Faith, channeling Dawn, hissed at the ghost, and then followed her. For her loyal defense, Dawn snuck the Eevee some food.

By the time her mom was bringing out the piping hot meat, though, Dawn's mood had improved. "Are you training Janice for something?" she asked, before she dug in.

"The Valerie's Secret Fashion Show," her mom said. "I don't know if I told you, but they asked me to come with a few Pokémon and serve as the show's other entertainments along with a few singers. She's actually been home pretty often while you were gone."

Oh, right. "And you're taking Janice?" Dawn asked skeptically. A mischievous ice ghost amongst famous women in underwear in front of a large audience in a show people all over the world would be watching sounded like a recipe for absolute disaster to her.

"She'll behave," Johanna replied with a smile directed towards the Froslass. Janice got the message, loud and clear.

Well, if that was the case . . . . "Who else?" Other than her prank-loving personality, Janice was a pretty good choice. Ice-type moves were always beautiful, and combined with her ghostly powers, often gave the most ethereal, mysterious combinations in her coordinating performances. Judges usually made puns on how they were 'haunting' and 'sent chills down their spines'. Janice never got tired of getting them.

"Jackie was specifically requested, so she's going as well, and Selene too."

Dawn choked on the water she had been swallowing, and very nearly spat it out all over Faith. "Selene?" she said, once the danger of choking had passed. "Really?"

A few days after the party at Mr. Backlot's, Selene had evolved into a Kirlia, and her personality had changed pretty drastically. She was far less shy and quiet, and more outgoing. Coordinating and performing had done wonders for her confidence, just like her mom had predicted.

And Dawn knew herself that Kirlia were pretty versatile Pokémon, so the combinations that Johanna could come up with were near-endless.

But this was a _really_ big show, and Selene was a beginner. Like, _no_ name recognition whatsoever.

"Not to perform," Johanna explained. "Just so she can observe a performance of that size and level. The last one is going to be Jasmine."

"Is she here too?" The Wormadam usually kept to herself. Dawn didn't know much about the bug-type, except that she was quiet in normal life and pretty good at using flash cannon and iron defense in combinations.

"Downstairs. It's warmer in the basement."

"When is the show?"

Johanna swallowed her bite of food. "In ten days."

"Ten days?!" That was news to her.

"Didn't I tell you?" Johanna frowned.

Dawn shook her head. She didn't remember that part.

"Oh dear," Johanna sighed. "I'm getting old."

"I thought the show was in, like, December or something." Ten days? Really? That was so soon.

"They tape it earlier before they actually air it near holiday season for advertising purposes, since everyone's busier in December. I'll be flying to Unova in two days, so I can work with rehearsal and make sure that everything goes the way it should onstage. Will you be alright with staying at home alone?"

Dawn nodded. She wasn't a stranger to staying at home alone.

"I've already talked to Margaret, she says you're welcome over any time if you get scared, or want to stay with them."

"I'll be fine," Dawn reassured her. Johanna always worried when she left Dawn behind at home for any reason. "I've got my own Pokémon now, we can handle ourselves."

Johanna tightened her lips. "Just because you have Pokémon doesn't mean you can necessarily handle yourself in every situation," she said.

Dawn shrieked as something icy and wet trailed down her back in her clothes. "Janice!" she wailed.

"See?" Johanna said while the Froslass giggled.

She whined about it a little more, but she was secretly glad that her mom had returned to normal as well this year.

* * *

The moment her mom had left – flying with Minerva, who braved the cold well – Barry popped up at her house. "C'mon!" he said, grabbing her by the arm and beginning to drag her out. "I told Lucas I'd meet him in Sandgem, so get moving!"

"Wait!" Dawn dug her heels into the floor and tried to come to a stop. "Let me put a coat on at least!"

So he waited impatiently, tapping his foot against the ground in a far-too pointed manner, until she was snugly wrapped up with her Pokémon and bag in hand. "About time."

She resisted the urge to hit his head with her bag. Just barely. But she was able to be the better person. "You didn't even _warn_ me, or tell me about it in advance. That's on you."

"You take too long!"

Dawn glanced at the snow they were walking through. There was a path, worn by the feet of people making their way across town, but the snow was stacked seriously high. The world around ground level was white, with splashes of colour every now and then.

In Twinleaf, it looked cozy, like something on a Yuletide card. But if the weather turned worse even by the slightest bit, it could suddenly be a lot more deadly. Every student at trainer schools – or schools in general – were warned of the horrors of being unprepared in the unforgiving Sinnohan winter, ranging from lost digits and noses to death, to even the occasional myth of monsters in the ice.

"I'm prepared for cold weather!"

And so they went on until the play-bickering died out on its own. "Why are we going to Sandgem?" Dawn asked.

"So we can go to the beach," Barry said, a 'duh' in his voice.

She paused, and tried to decipher the Barry-ese. She usually understood it fluently, but every now and then, like on this rare occasion, she failed to properly translate it to something she could grasp. "The beach."

"Yup."

". . . In November."

"Yup."

"Do you know what the temperature is right now?" She herself didn't know the exact number, but it was below zero. Far too below zero for any dips in the ocean for humans.

"No, but it's pretty cold."

Alright, so he knew that.

"We're not swimming, are we?" Dawn hazarded asking directly. She was pretty sure Neptune wouldn't mind swimming around in the near-freezing seawater – he might actually like it – but if they went in wading, they'd get instant hypothermia.

Barry looked at her like she was insane. "Why would we swim?"

Good – his senses were working properly today.

"Just checking. With you I'm never sure."

"Hey!"

Dawn waved it away. She could go and list off all the crazy ideas he had come up with over the years – or she could move on. "What are we going there for?"

"To meet Lucas."

". . . For?" Dawn prodded when no other explanation other than that came from him.

"To train."

It didn't take long to reach Sandgem. The route between the two towns had mostly been cleared of snow, and wild Pokémon weren't interested in coming out, not when it was as cold as it was.

Lucas met them at the edge of the town, and Dawn was reminded of the first time she had stepped into Sandgem as a trainer with Neptune – then unnamed – on her way to talk to Professor Rowan. Only one Pokémon, and a little – even if he was fierce – Piplup at that.

It seemed both a very long time ago, and yet at the same time like it had just been a few days. But she'd come pretty far since then, and that made her smile.

"You guys walked?" Lucas asked, after glancing over them. "Don't you both have flying Pokémon?"

Dawn looked at Barry, who was looking at her. "Oh yeah," Barry said slowly.

"I didn't think of that," Dawn admitted. "_We_ didn't think of that."

Lucas gave a small grin. "I'm glad we weren't meeting in Jubilife," he said, beginning to make his way through town. They followed. "I'd have been waiting in the cold for _hours_."

"Hey, we'd have been here quicker if Dawn didn't spend so much time dressing up-"

She flushed lightly. "I didn't even take that long! And I was _not_ dressing up!"

In the past, Lucas would have just quietly stayed on the side while they bickered. Now, he just laughed. "I thought training was supposed to be about being tough," he teased.

"I'll show you tough," Dawn said in a jokingly threatening tone, brandishing Frejya's Poké ball in the direction of his head.

The Sandgem beach was abandoned. No one seemed to be interested in coming out to freezing temperature for the sake of looking at a relatively small, dull beach in winter, with gray skies meeting its darker-shaded counterpart in the ocean. Not that Dawn could blame anybody for feeling that way.

Still, it looked like a nice place to train, especially because no one was around. "How are we going to do this?" she asked aloud. "All of our Pokémon out at once probably isn't a good idea – it'll get way too hectic for that."

"But it'll save time," Barry argued. "Why work on only a few at a time? They're a team, they've gotta learn to work together."

Instead of arguing further on it, like they usually would have done if it had just been the two of them, they turned to Lucas. An odd number meant that democracy could work out with a clear majority.

"I'm siding with Dawn on this one," Lucas said after some thought. "If all of them are out and practicing on techniques or moves, it could be dangerous. Two out each?"

Barry, seeing both the logic in the argument and how he was outvoted, agreed. Several Pokémon being released later, the beach suddenly had not only the three of them, but also a Mime Jr., a Floatzel, an Empoleon, a Lopunny, a Clefairy and a Shieldon out.

Neptune, upon being released, nodded to Allen, who blinked at the dark blue water-type in unrecognition before he stiffened in surprise. Then, Dawn's starter looked at the ocean, and started to wade into the bitterly cold waters.

"Um, Neptune?" Dawn began, slightly worried, before she remembered that Empoleon were pretty famous for living in icy ocean water. It wasn't cold enough for large chunks of ice to be floating around here, not in the southern waters.

Besides, swimming was training too. He didn't get a chance to swim in deeper waters very much, and while that made him more adept to fighting on dry land – something not every water-type could do easily, due to their biology – it meant that in water, he could be disadvantaged and inexperienced. "Stay close, would you?"

Not to be outdone, Allen slunk forwards to join him in the arctic dip.

"Is he going to be alright?" Dawn asked.

"Allen's tough," Barry replied. "He'll be fine."

Dawn gave him a baleful look – being tough was fine and all, but that was _not_ what she had been asking – when Lucas dug out his Pokédex and pressed a few buttons while pointing it towards Allen's direction. "He'll be fine," he said after a few seconds of reading. "Floatzel have thick fur that lets them swim in cold waters for some time without suffering too much problems."

Assured that the rivalry between Neptune and Allen wouldn't end up getting them sick, Dawn turned her attention to the other Pokémon. Frejya was the only one out of the four on land that was fully evolved. She wondered if she should swap out the Lopunny for Faith, but then decided against it. Practice against smaller targets was good too.

While Neptune and Allen swam and splashed around, they paired the Pokémon off. Frejya was against Sherlock, because the smaller Pokémon needed to know how to deal with a faster opponent. Frejya, on the other hand, could practice against a slow but very sturdy foe.

The first time Frejya punched the Shieldon – lightly, as a way of testing her foe – she looked taken aback at how little it actually did. She put some more force behind the punch the second time, and saw the same results. Sherlock actually looked bored at the hits.

Frowning, Frejya drew a fist back, and then, after cloaking it with the orange energy of a concentrated rock smash, punched firmly. There was a very loud crack, but when she drew back her fist, there were no visible marks or indication of being hit.

Dawn's eyes widened. "Oh," she said faintly. "Um, wow."

Lucas smiled sheepishly. "He's pretty good at taking hits. Sherlock, you, um, want to try fighting back?"

The Shieldon didn't even look his way as he coated his body – and shield-like face – in a glowing sheen. "That's iron defense," Dawn said, recognizing the move from one of her mom's Pokémon.

"That's good," Lucas said, not wanting to discourage his Pokémon. "But I mean like an actual attack?"

Sherlock stepped towards Frejya in a lumbering gait. Frejya, slightly confused, watched as the Shieldon came forwards – and headbutted one of her legs. It looked like it had extremely little effect.

Dawn saw, in her peripheral vision, Lucas holding back a sigh. She reached out and patted his arm.

"So he's clearly a tank Pokémon," Barry said. "I bet he'd be good at stalling out the foe."

Lucas smiled weakly, but it was a genuine smile. "He is," he agreed. "He was battling this Pokémon once – a Machop – and he actually wore the Machop out just by waiting and letting it hit him till it couldn't keep fighting."

Sherlock shuffled on his stubby legs, a ghost of a pleased look visible on his hard face.

"So maybe if he learned something like toxic, or rest, he'd be pretty much unstoppable," Barry continued on, getting excited. "And even more so in something like double battles. He'd be the ultimate support for a Pokémon like Charlotte! Oh, hey, what if you taught him double team? Not only would any hits that landed do like next to nothing, but it would get even harder to hit him!"

"I want to see how many hits he can take," Dawn said. "Frejya, rock smash. Sherlock, block with-" she cut herself off when she remembered that Sherlock was not her Pokémon, and this wasn't her call to make.

Lucas, however, picked up the clue and enthusiasm well enough on his own. "Sherlock, use iron defense. Focus on covering what weak spots you have. Let's show her that your defenses can't just be broken through so easily."

Surprised at the sudden competitiveness, Dawn – and Barry – glanced at Lucas. His eyes were alight – not in the flashy, bright way Barry's could get, but a slower burn, a deeper light.

Sherlock responded to the gusto and confident call well. He adjusted his stance so that he was in a better crouch, and looked at Frejya with a challenge in his eyes. The Lopunny raised her eyebrows, and then began hammering away with her fists.

Billie Jean and Miranda, on the other hand, were paired together because they were similar. Both were users of some pretty mystic skills, but the way they carried them out were slightly different.

And in the case of Billie Jean, the only female 'mon on a team of arguably reckless, physical-oriented Pokémon trained by Barry, very, _very_ different.

"Do most Mime Jr. try to tackle their opponents down?" Dawn wondered out loud as Billie Jean let out a shrieking war cry and chased after Miranda. The Clefairy, scared by the fierce face Billie Jean was making, abandoned trying to use a sing against her and fled, screaming in terror. Clearly, Miranda had a phobia of clowns. Or, if she didn't before, she would develop one before the day was over. A crippling fear of one.

"I think that's just Barry's Mime Jr.," Lucas said, before he nearly got tackled over by a frightened Miranda, who had fled to her trainer. "Whoa! It's alright, girl, Billie Jean won't hurt you."

That was right before Billie Jean, in an effort to get to her 'sparring partner', charged straight at Lucas, clearly meaning to hurt. He winced, but managed to keep the psychic from getting his Clefairy.

Barry laughed so hard that he fell on his butt. Dawn joined in, and after he managed to stop Billie Jean from her attempts at slapping Miranda silly, Lucas did as well, because he did see the humour in the situation, and even he had to admit that it was funny.

"I see you're training hard," said a voice when their laughter died out.

They all whipped around to see Professor Rowan, dressed in a thick waterproof coat and standing behind them.

"Professor!" Lucas blurted, scrambling back up to his feet, looking mortified. Barry jumped back upwards as well, trying to look cool and more mature than he had actually been, although the image of looking smooth was ruined when he nearly toppled over back onto the snow-covered ground again. "I – I didn't see you there."

"I would think you wouldn't have," he replied dryly. "I just got here."

While Dawn, wide-eyed, tried to figure out if he had just made a joke, he took a sweeping look at all the Pokémon that were out until his eyes stopped on Billie Jean. "Hm," he said. "Barry, this is your Mime. Jr., correct?"

"Yeah – er, yes," Barry replied, back and shoulder tensed.

"I've read your notes on her caretaking," he said, and when Barry choked, gave him a strange look. "I am capable of accessing the reports and notes you make on Pokémon entries in your Pokédex, as well as their health records. Were you not aware of this?"

Barry gaped.

"Apparently not," Professor Rowan said, more to himself than to Barry. "I would prefer it if you sent the relevant reports and notes yourself, by the way. But you've trained her vigorously and gave her a healthy, nutritious diet, correct?"

Still struck dumb, he didn't respond, so Dawn had to nudge his ribs with her elbow to make him nod.

"Hm," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an old and scratched but clean great ball. "In that case . . . ."

Professor Rowan released the Pokémon inside the ball, which was revealed to be a Mr. Mime. "Does your Mime Jr. know how to use mimic?"

"Uh, yes."

"Would you object to your Mime Jr. evolving here?"

Barry started in surprise, and looked at Billie Jean – who had picked up her trainer's uncertainty and looked unsure herself – before turning his gaze to Professor Rowan again. "Huh? Uh, no?"

The professor didn't look particularly impressed by his uncertain tone. "Is that a question, Barry?"

If there was one thing to make Barry snap out of any self-conscious, nervous funk, it was a challenge. He straightened immediately, regaining his confidence. "No, I don't mind, sir," he replied firmly, eyes flashing. Next to him, Billie Jean straightened out as well.

Professor Rowan nodded. "Sigmund," he said to his Mr. Mime. "Would you do the honours?"

The Mr. Mime stepped towards Billie Jean, spindly limbs stepping in over-exaggerated dainty steps. When he was in front of her, he bent his joints one at a time so that he was uneven at all times as he lowered his face to be level with the Mime Jr.

"Do Mime Jr. have to meet a Mr. Mime to evolve?" Lucas asked in a hushed voice, digging out his Pokédex to record the evolution. "I didn't know that."

Professor Rowan, who was already holding a dex of his own up to record the process, replied quietly. "No. However, it's much easier and faster for them to get help from one instead of figuring it out on their own."

"Figure it out?" Dawn asked, and then lowered her head in slight embarrassment when Lucas shushed her, eyes focused on the two Pokémon's interactions. Their other Pokémon, sensing that something important was about to happen, quietened down and gathered around as well to watch.

Professor Rowan's Mr. Mime ignored the humans talking and Pokémon watching. He slowly tipped his cheeky face to the left. Billie Jean, staring deeply at Sigmund, mirrored him by letting her head fall to the right.

Sigmund raised a foot – and then kept raising it until his two legs were one long, vertical line. She mimicked him to the best of her abilities, wobbling on her little toes. He lifted his left hand up near his face, two fingers held up in a victory sign. She mimicked him to the best of her abilities. Due to the differences in their anatomy, there were some things she couldn't do, but she tried very hard, improvising some actions on the spot when she had to.

Dawn thought it admirable that she was trying to make up for it, but Sigmund clearly didn't think so, because he flicked her on the forehead with his fingers. When she made a sound, his face of disapproval became even sterner – somehow uncannily like Professor Rowan's, Dawn thought – and he flicked her in the same spot again. This time, she only expressed her pain through facial expressions and kept silent.

"What's going on?" Barry asked, confused. Dawn silently asked the same question he did.

Professor Rowan handed his Pokédex to Lucas, who fumbled to properly hold the two cameras, before he turned to Barry and her. "What we've observed is that Mime Jr., like Bonsly into Sudowoodo, evolve into Mr. Mime only after they learn the move 'mimic'," he said. "But the time period between learning the move and actually evolving differ between each subject we've observed. Research seems to suggest that they're more likely to evolve when they fully master mimic."

"Isn't mimic just a move that copies whatever move the opponent used?" Barry asked. "I thought that was all it would be."

"In battle, yes. But it can be used to mimic the – shall we call it – _soul_ of others as well." Professor Rowan gestured to the two, who were now miming walls with their hands. Typical mime behaviour. "When a Mime Jr. learns to mimic more than just moves, but another's being, that's when they evolve."

Dawn watched, and realized that while the exercise may have started as Billie Jean mimicking the Mr. Mime, it was now Sigmund mimicking the Mime Jr. And, the interesting thing was, Sigmund seemed to be mimicking her in such a way that made it seem as if he was a Mime Jr. once more.

"Is it me, or is he acting almost like a Mime Jr.?" Barry asked in a loud whisper.

"You wouldn't be wrong," Professor Rowan replied, overhearing his words. "Mr. Mime don't just copy the movements – the greatest of them learn how to encompass the very being of others. To stand in their shoes, so to speak. They are actors of empathy, able to easily become a mirror of others to the point where they almost hypnotize watchers into believing that they see what is being mimicked. They adapt your behaviour, feel your emotions, and strive to have their every body movement made as yours would. Sudowoodo do something similar – when a Bonsly becomes able to mimic a tree, that's when they evolve."

Sigmund began taking the lead in the mirror game once more, and Billie Jean followed, mimicking the movements. This time, Dawn could see the difference. Where Billie Jean had only copied Sigmund before, now she seemed to have an air where she really became a Mr. Mime. Where he wiggled his fingers, instead of shaking her stubby hands like she had before, now she held them out, but still gave the impression that she not only had fingers, but were wiggling them.

It was an interesting sight to see, to say the least. Dawn and her Pokémon watched, awestruck, as Sigmund continued to lead Billie Jean through a series of exercises. Some could be done by the biological parts she had, and some couldn't, but she mimicked them all the same.

"If, say, a Mime Jr. who didn't know how to mimic properly tried to copy a move like iron tail," Professor Rowan said. "What do you think would happen?"

Dawn didn't know, but Barry apparently did. "It'll fail," he said. "She tried to mimic Starling's fly once. Nothing really happened."

The professor nodded. "Try having her mimic him again after she's finished learning," he suggested. "I think you'll find the results very interesting."

Sigmund began making more complicated, dramatic gestures. He made movements like Johtoan traditional dancers, complete with facial expressions and hand gestures. Billie Jean mimicked his each and every action, managing to put in the emotions to make up for lacking body parts.

They turned, swept their arms, took small steps, and then finished up in a complicated bow, Billie Jean a heartbeat slower than Sigmund. When she finished the bow, she began glowing.

"Whoa," Lucas muttered. Professor Rowan took his Pokédex back so his assistant could better capture the moment.

When the glow faded away, two Mr. Mime stood in the center of everyone's attention. The shorter one smiled slowly, until her face was stretched with glee. The taller one mirrored her.

Barry finally found his voice – and original volume. "So cool!" he yelped.

And Dawn and Lucas had to agree, clapping to show it.

* * *

Before her mom came back, Dawn flew to Veilstone on Themis and went shopping for Yule presents on her own for the first time. The money from her new sponsors had come in at a good time, because now she could use it for buying gifts. She picked up a pretty charm from an Anesidora store for her mom, a horrible tie patterned with cartoon Shaymin as a joke gift for Uncle Palmer and other gifts for all the important humans in her life before she had to consider what to get for her Pokémon.

Just food for them seemed like a really cheap, not at all appropriate thing for her hardworking team, especially as a Yule gift. Some of them wouldn't even know what Yule was and probably not care as much, but she would, and she would care.

Forget picking out things for her mom – who was not an easy person to shop for, given that people tended to shower her with some very awesome things pretty regularly – this was the hardest gift shopping she'd ever done.

Accessories? Er, no. Maybe Faith would like them . . . oh, but her mom's were far more superior and these just looked cheap. Pokétreats – no. And most of them were too big to fit into a fancy pet Pokémon carrier purse – and probably wouldn't appreciate her carrying them in it.

Then she saw the section of the department store for TMs – the same place where a few months ago, Helios had picked up the machine for false swipe and revealed his wish to become a Gallade.

A Technical Machine, for each of them?

On one hand, this was pretty selfish of her still, because it benefited her the most. She knew that.

But on the other hand, this was a useful gift. And, she noted, grimacing at the prices that were supposedly 'marked down' for the coming holiday, not too cheap.

Dawn wavered, thought some more, and then gave up and walked up to the display and began picking out TMs, something special and necessary for each of her Pokémon. For Neptune? Ice beam seemed nice, and fun for him to use besides. Sekhmet was in need of a ranged attack, so thunderbolt would be really great. Blizzard and thunder were tempting because they were stronger, but they'd require more focus and skill to control properly – and were slightly more expensive. For now the first choices would do much better.

For Faith . . . Dawn went with protect. She was still pretty frail, compared to everyone else, and a powerful shield would help with that. Giga drain, the more powerful version of mega drain, was perfect for Medusa.

She considered U-turn for Themis, but when she saw an older trainer decide against taking the last TM for aerial ace, she dove for it before he could change his mind, or anyone else could take it.

That left Frejya. She could learn so many different moves, being a versatile normal-type, but Dawn wanted something she could actually use well. Maybe return, or . . . .

Dawn picked up a TM for giga impact. Powerful. Very powerful. And also hard to control, because it required using up a lot of energy. After using it, Pokémon couldn't make another move because of the rebound – they had to wait for their body to recover its base resources before they could even think of firing off another attack.

But if anyone could use it well, it was probably Frejya. Dawn tried to calculate the total cost, and then gave up before she moved to her watch so she could use the calculator app. The number on the screen had her cringing, but she did have more than enough money for it all.

Telling herself that it was justified as a gift, and as something to spend such a large amount of money on, she made the purchase and carefully put them all away before letting Themis out. The Golbat shivered slightly, but Veilstone's air was warmer than Twinleaf's because of the heat rising off the rocks it stood on.

When she came home with gifts and began wrapping them, Faith came over, sniffing curiously. "They're for Yule," Dawn explained, finishing taping up the one for Barry. He was the one that would be least offended by any wrinkled wrapping paper, which made his the best one to start with for practice. He always tore off the paper in a hurry, so it wasn't a waste.

Sekhmet and Neptune were in the living room, both trying – and failing – to bully Frejya into changing the channels using the remote. The Lopunny coolly ignored them both and continued to hold onto the remote as the television continued to air an advertisement for berries.

"The story is," Dawn told Faith, who was the only one joining her. "That Shaymin, god of gratitude, used to travel across the world on the wind so that he could give gifts from the very depths of his hearts when people were about to lose hope and fall into despair. By doing this, he was hoping to not only spread hope, faith and charity when they were needed most –" the Eevee's ears perked up "– but also teach them of the joys of giving for no reason other than to share, and the value of knowing gratitude.

"One time, though, the people were on the verge of losing their gratitude and hope. That just happened to be the coldest, darkest day of the year with the coldest, darkest winter in a very long time. Shaymin, who was a flower god, couldn't leave his flower paradise and travel the world on the wind like he normally did because of it. Worried, he began to weep for all the people he wouldn't be able to save from despair.

"A Delibird approached him, though, and worried for the god, asked, 'Why are you crying?'

"Miserable, Shaymin looked up from the ground. 'It's horrible,' he replied. 'The snow storm is so powerful, and I can't fly through it! If I can't fly, then I can't deliver the gifts to the people, just when they're all so filled with despair and misery!'"

Dawn stopped her story and looked up when she realized that she didn't hear Sekhmet and Neptune arguing over the sound of the television. She found all three of her other Pokémon sitting on the edge of the room, staring at her intently.

Sekhmet made an impatient noise. Neptune poked the Luxray in her side. Frejya glared at both of them in a rare show of impatience.

She smiled at them, entertained by their antics, and then continued, beginning to cut the wrapping paper out for the second parcel.

"'Oh, the storm,' the Delibird said. 'Yes, it would be hard for you.'

"Shaymin agreed. The Delibird, however, who knew just how hard Shaymin always tried to spread the spirit of giving, realized that it wasn't fair for the gratitude god to be the only one doing such good, unselfish deeds.

"So he made a decision. 'Tell you what,' he said. 'I'll call some members of my family, and we'll go deliver the gifts for you.'

"Shaymin looked up from his gloomy state. 'You would do that?' he asked, filling with hope.

"The Delibird nodded. 'I would. You taught us the importance of giving – so now it's time for us to put it into practice. The hail and snow doesn't bother us, for we are made to go through it easily. We'll give just as you have given, so that your giving spirit may continue to burn on and warm everyone through the harsh, cold winters.'

"The words, genuine and true, brightened up the god. 'Thank you!' he cried, his heart filled with joy. 'Oh, thank you! Blessed be your kind, so that you may forever be the deliverers of joy and hope! May you always have the ability to spread bliss and happiness!'

"Hah!" she added in triumph when she found that the paper wrapped around the present exactly. She had this.

Neptune made an impatient noise and tapped his webbed foot against the floor. Reaching for the tape, she continued.

"The Delibird gathered his friends, and together, they began to reach as many places as they can, spreading the word and delivering gifts to those who needed it. Blessed by Shaymin, they found that the sacks they carried would never run out of gifts as they continued to give and rekindle hope.

"And so, the Delibird together spread not only the gifts, but also the spirit of giving. Shaymin, who saw that everyone had finally understood the importance of giving that he had been trying to spread, let people and Pokémon continue giving to each other on their own.

"And that's how Yule started," Dawn finished, both the story and the second package. This one was for Uncle Palmer, whose gift-opening habits were almost as bad as Barry's. The wrapping was also marginally better than Barry's. "To continue the spirit of giving, we give gifts."

She was actually pretty sure there were parts to the story she had left out, and some different variations as well, but that was the basic gist of it. "And then the custom spread like wildfire when Kanto adopted it," she added. Even an imperial conquering army had found something likeable about a festival promoting the goodness of giving. What was not to like about uplifting spirits in the cold, dark times of winter?

"Pass me the pink one over there?"

* * *

Dawn managed to get all the shopping and wrapping done and hid the gifts away before her mom returned from Unova, looking exhausted.

"Was it a good show?" she asked, taking her bags and locking the door. It was late in the night, because she took the late flight to return home as soon as possible.

"It was decent," Johanna replied, taking off her sunglasses to reveal tired eyes. "A lot of the brand's face models are either retiring this year or on maternity leave, but they did well, all things considered. Selene learned a lot, and Janice behaved. There was nearly a crisis when one of the models nearly had a wardrobe malfunction, but Jackie solved it masterfully."

Dawn hugged her, and felt the chill from her dark coat seep through her own clothes. She could practically smell the cold chilled air radiating from her mom. "Do you want a bath?"

"Please."

She ran and began drawing the water. While the tub filled, she grabbed the bath salts and poured them into the hot water.

Johanna shook her head when Dawn – half-jokingly – asked if she wanted any flower petals in the bath. "But thank you for the thought."

"Call if you need me," she said.

Her mom smiled. "I'll be fine. Go to sleep, Dawn."

It took Johanna another day to recover from jet lag and exhaustion, but afterwards she was fine. "I've never been more glad that you're short, Dawn," she said in the middle of their first breakfast together.

"Why?" Dawn asked, after she swallowed. Normally she would have bristled at the comment about her less-than-average height, especially from her mom, but she had the feeling that there was more following this remark.

"Because you won't be a model. Goodness, they're all so skinny."

That reminded her of Lisia not eating a lot at that party before, and Dawn asked about it.

Johanna grimaced. "She's worried that she'll gain weight. A rival of hers made some very mean comments about her right where she could hear them."

Dawn frowned. "Her rival called her fat?" That was not only mean, but also completely untrue.

"She didn't outright call her fat," Johanna said. "She did, however, suggest it, and add some untrue comments about how Lisia was only riding on the coattails of her famous relatives. She reminds me of you."

"Lisia?"

"Yes. She's very determined to make her own way, and not rely on her family to make it big." Johanna smiled slightly.

But wait, who was Lisia's famous family?

"Her uncle is Wallace."

Something clicked. "Wallace the Hoenn Champion?!" The man who had made it to the top in _both_ main Pokémon-related industries?

"And she also has Juan, the Sootopolis Gym Leader in her family as well. He's also a top coordinator. You've met him before, I think? A few years back."

Whoa. Lisia could have just as easily been a trainer, or been big simply by using both Juan and Wallace's statuses. Dawn liked the girl even more now.

"Well," Johanna sighed. "She's gone home for the holidays, so I hope she'll build up her confidence."

* * *

The temperature dropped some more, and Themis and Medusa became even less functional outdoors. They certainly tried rather valiantly, but Medusa just ended up curled into a tighter ball of stiffening, unmoving vines in half an hour, while Themis struggled to stay hovering. The cold air meant that there were less warm drafts – more like none – for her to use, which meant that more effort had to go into actively flapping her wings to stay airborne.

Dawn made a mental note to work with them extra hard when the weather warmed up, or find somewhere indoors to work with them when she could.

But the others were still more functional in the snow and cold, and Dawn wanted to take advantage of nature's harshness to train them in a large, natural environment where almost everything around them would hinder their movements and senses.

Neptune, perhaps thanks to his genes and typing, seemed to be the least affected, and he knew it all-too-well. He 'politely' flaunted it every time he could by being the first to always saunter into the snow to start the day, eager to begin the training. Sekhmet would follow if only so she wouldn't be shown up by him, and when both of them were out in the snow, Frejya and Faith just had to follow.

Because the snow was too deep for Faith to properly navigate through sometimes in areas where no one had cleared or shovelled it, Frejya took it upon herself to carry Faith in her arms so that the Eevee didn't have to resort to comically jumping her way to places like a Whack-a-'Lett's Diglett heads popping up through holes.

One day, though, Dawn found herself slightly bored. While Neptune and Sekhmet were engaged in a contest to avoid showing traces of feeling the cold – a contest Sekhmet was significantly disadvantaged in, and yet did not give up on anyways – Dawn reached down, sculpted a snowball, and then took aim as sneakily as she could.

Faith noticed, but she giggled quietly as Dawn threw the snowball at Neptune. Her starter sputtered, more in surprise than cold or pain when the snowball broke on his trident-shaped horns and scattered chunks of icy snow down at his face.

Sekhmet let out amused growling sounds as Faith yipped with laughter. Even Frejya cracked a smile.

Face stern, Neptune opened his mouth like he was about to deliver a stern scolding to them all – and let out a large stream of bubbles that flew everywhere instead. The cold in the air chilled them to icy temperatures immediately, and Dawn squealed when one popped on her chin. The squeal turned into a scream when a snowball hit her on the back of her head, and some bits of it fell into the crack between her scarf and her coat.

"No headshots!" she yelled the old rule that _someone_ was blatantly breaking, turning around to see Barry and some of his Pokémon. Starling and Champ also couldn't really be out in this weather, but he had Allen, Billie Jean and Bruce with him.

No Camarero. "He doesn't like walking in the snow. It melts and then gets his hooves wet," Barry explained when she asked about him, before yelling when she beaned him with another snowball she had been hiding behind her back. "Hey, no fair, attacking the head!"

Dawn's jaw dropped at the hypocrisy. "You _started_ it!"

"Oh yeah?"

And from then on it was just war. They ran to opposite ends of the snow field between their houses, and began stacking up on snowballs. She was at a bit of a disadvantage, because only Frejya could help her make actual snowballs, while Barry was faster at producing snow projectiles and had more Pokémon to help him, but she wasn't going to let him win this one.

"Neptune, light bubble beam towards them," she whispered, seeing Barry and his Pokémon stocking up a huge pile. "Light – we don't want to soak them in this weather. That's just mean."

Her starter looked like he wouldn't mind being mean very much, but shrugged his dark blue shoulders.

"Sekhmet, hide Faith. Faith, make a pile of snow we can hide behind. Like a snow den."

Eyeing the other team, Neptune breathed out a thick stream of thin bubbles. They were hard to see because the white of the abundant snow around them made it nearly impossible to notice the transparent spheres silently gliding across the air. Half of them popped on the way there, but it made Bruce and Billie Jean flinch when the survivors landed on their skins and popped, delivering chilled water attacks.

Allen leapt to his feet, abandoning the snowball he had been sculpting between his paws. He opened his mouth, and then fired a water gun.

Neptune, recognizing that getting soaked in the current temperature was going _way_ too far for anyone who didn't resist the cold as well as he did, dove forth in a quick aqua jet to take the brunt of the hit. He snapped his beaks angrily at Allen, who huffed and lashed his twin tails.

"Hey," Barry protested when one of the pounding tails broke three finished snowballs. "Allen, careful!" He grabbed the leftover pieces of the destroyed snowballs, and threw them towards Dawn. Because of their broken shape, they didn't fly properly, and failed to hit Dawn or her Pokémon.

"You missed!" Dawn called tauntingly, and crouched to pick up more snow and pack them into snowballs to build up her ammo so she could properly fight back against the retaliation that was definitely on its way when two large hands grabbed her under her arms and raised her up high. She shrieked, half in surprise and half in indignant anger because Barry hit her in the face with his own snowball just then. Her Pokémon, startled at the sudden presence amongst them, dropped their focus on Barry to warily eye the newcomer.

Behind her, boisterous laughter rung out as the culprit responsible for breaking her dodging streak set her back down in the snow, this time so she could stand. "Did you grow a little taller, Dawn?" Palmer asked, ruffling her head through the knitted hat she wore.

"Uncle Palmer!" she yelled and threw her arms around him in a hug. Her Pokémon behind her relaxed when they saw that he wasn't a threat.

"Daddy!" Barry yelled, and ran towards them with the force of a rampaging Tauros. Dawn made a squeaking pained sound when he hit them both at full impact, but Palmer only laughed at the additional weight of his son and hugged them back.

"I'm home!" he announced to the world.

Palmer Keizer was one of the most famous trainers from Sinnoh. As the Battle Tower Tycoon and co-owner of the Sinnohan branch of the Battle Frontiers, he held a significant amount of control in the battling world of the north.

He had some influence in the League as well, being close friends with Crasher Wake, and had once been offered a position as a gym leader, only to turn it down to pursue the then-ludicrous idea of the Battle Frontier, a private institution with rules different than those sanctioned in the league.

When the Sinnoh League announced that its Champion's identity would be kept secret, some speculated that he might be the hidden Champion of Sinnoh. If he was, Dawn thought that it might explain a lot of things, like how he was often absent, but if he was, he never said.

Still, she doubted it. He was _way_ too busy with the Battle Frontier, over at Stark Island, to be Champion of Sinnoh.

The Battle Frontier was like private tournaments, following a different set of battling rules than the League, but done in a way that made it a consistent method of acquiring ranks. Tournaments gave more 'points' in terms of trainer rankings, but slow and steady progress – better in the long run – was far more easily gained at the different facilities offered at the Battle Frontier.

Items that weren't permitted in League battles, like choice items, life orbs and such could be incorporated into a part of battling strategy while at the Frontier. However, unlike League rules, there was the four-move limit that had to be placed per Pokémon like some tournaments. Unlike the League, which tested the overall strength, speed and power of Pokémon trained by trainers, the Frontier was a place to hone one's skills and tactics.

Dawn and Barry had made field trips over to the Frontier a lot of times, to take in the sight of the miniature city – because technically the Battle Frontier was a city of its own – and watch the exciting battles that happened every day in its many arenas. It was a confluence of Pokémon and talent, with a wide, diverse range of experience all coming together. They saw beginners with new Pokémon, to masters throwing out different gambits at the opponent like they were going out of fashion. All sorts of different, diverse styles came together to develop there.

Technically, Barry and Dawn could have both headed there to get more involved in a different front of battling than the one the League provided, but Palmer had – through some surprisingly cunning prodding – gotten them to swear that they wouldn't battle at the Frontier until they had all eight badges from the Sinnoh League when they were ten. And he expected them to keep it.

Initially, both Dawn and Barry hadn't been too happy about that, but at this point, more than halfway through the goal, Dawn was beginning to see why he might have done that. So far, going across Sinnoh to train and challenge different gyms with specific objectives and expectations had been very goal-oriented and consistent, allowing her Pokémon to be more diverse, and also at the same time grow at a steadier rate.

At the Battle Frontier, she and Barry would have been holed up in the same place for a long time. She definitely wouldn't have gotten some of the Pokémon she did, and some things might not have happened the way it did. Making a friend in Lucas. Finding a role model figure in Maylene. Stuff like that.

Still. When they got all eight badges she and Barry were going to go and register at the Battle Frontier. He'd probably go directly to the Battle Tower and begin climbing the ranks to face his dad, while Dawn . . . .

Most likely, she would give the Tower a go as well. While not as much as Barry felt, she also wanted to get the chance to battle against Palmer.

* * *

That year, celebrating Yule was much louder and more crowded than ever, with all the new Pokémon. Any Pokémon that was too big had to be returned and kept in their Poké balls, or released outside.

The day before Yule, Dawn and Barry, along with a few of their smaller Pokémon, were conscripted into cooking up food for the feast. "They'll have to eat Pokémon food mostly," Johanna said, "but I think your Pokémon can all appreciate a taste of human food."

Barry refused to stuff the Starly, so he was put on potato-peeling and mashing duty while Dawn got down and dirty. "I'm pretty sure I've seen Starling hunt Starly in the area," she told him as she put the finishing touches on the bird that would be roasted before dinner. And by pretty sure, she meant she witnessed it in person. He and Sekhmet seemed to have bonded rather well over hunting Starly.

She wasn't going to stop them, though. She felt a little bad for the Starly, but in a way it was nature's way, and besides, Sekhmet seemed to really like hunting.

He stuck his tongue out. She threw some of the stuffing at his face, and then ducked behind Jumpy when he tried to get revenge with some potato peels. Said Kanghaskan was not pleased to have potato peels thrown at her face, and for that Barry had her stick to him for the rest of the day, keeping a close eye on him.

It was a fun Yule that year. More crowded than ever due to their Pokémon, but fun.

After the dinner, which was held at Dawn's home that year for the two families, the adults took their seats in the living room while she and Barry tore into the gift pile. The first one she picked was the largest one, wrapped surprisingly neatly for one that was from Palmer. Dawn guessed that it was actually packaged by someone else. Maybe the store clerk. Or Auntie Maggie.

She unwrapped it carefully, and realizing what it was had her jaw dropping and eyes widening. "Oh wow," she said, awed.

"Girls always like sparkly things," Palmer joked, and then took a long sip from his hot cider.

Dawn didn't deny it – she did have a soft spot for shiny things, and besides, he had just gotten her a set of evolutionary stones. Nine beautiful, jewel-like stones lay in the grooves lined with gray velvet-like cloth.

"Thank you!" she said belatedly, remembering her manners. She made up for her unintentional rudeness with enthusiasm. A lot of it.

The blond man chuckled. "You're welcome, princess. Use them well, alright?"

Dawn nodded fervently, and raced upstairs to put the stones somewhere safe. Faith ran after her, hyped up as well at her trainer's happy mood.

"Oh, Palmer," Johanna said, exasperated. "You'll spoil her. This is too expensive!"

He raised both his hands, even the one holding the hot mug, and nearly sloshed the sofa he sat on with the liquid inside. "Actually, it cost me nothing. One of the Battle Tower sponsors gave it to me as a gift, but I don't exactly have any uses for it. Thought Dawn might like it, though, and clearly, she does. Everyone wins this way, see?"

"So you're re-gifting," Johanna deadpanned. "Palmer, I thought we talked about you teaching my daughter bad habits."

"Re-gifting is a skill every entrepreneur needs to have in his or her toolbox!" Palmer said defensively.

Johanna sighed. "Well, at least now I feel less guilty for what I got Barry," she said musingly.

Margaret, who had been laughing at the side, and Palmer, who had been grinning, suddenly both lost their glee. "Wait, what?" Margaret began, when Barry came running into the room, an egg the size of a backpack in his arms.

"Look at what Auntie Jo got me!" he shouted, and then very nearly tripped. All three adults winced or cringed in fear and worry for the poor life inside, but he managed to regain his footing, and the egg was saved from becoming a large, shell-speckled splatter on the ground.

"Johanna," Margaret said as her son and Dawn – who had come downstairs when she heard the noise Barry was making – touched the egg's shell, wrapping it up with blankets in an effort to speed up the hatching process. Dawn even perched her Eevee on top of it, although she was quick to remove the Pokémon when the Eevee nearly lost her balance and fell off the domed shell. "What Pokémon is in that egg?"

"You know, I'm not actually sure," Johanna admitted, gently swirling the wine in her glass. A lovely one from the boulevards of Southern Kalos. Margaret had probably been the one to get it. Palmer's taste for alcohol wasn't as refined as his wife's. "I went to a breeder I know, and when I told him about getting a gift for Barry, he listened, and then said that whatever Pokémon was in that egg would fit his personality pretty well. And speaking of eggs, Dawn!" she raised her voice at the last word so her daughter could hear her.

Dawn looked up from her process of wrapping the egg's midriff – or the part that would have been its midriff – with a scarf. "Yeah, Mom?"

"There's a gift box for you in my closet," she said. "Go get it?"

Realizing what she meant, Dawn jumped to her feet and ran towards Johanna's bedroom. Barry nearly joined her, but a look from his mom reminded him of his manners, and he settled himself rubbing his palms over the shell of his egg.

It wasn't long before Dawn was running back with an open box in her arms. "I got an egg too!" she shouted, giddy.

"Don't run while carrying fragile things, Dawn," Johanna warned, and she slowed down. Still, her face was glowing with excitement. "And there's more than just the egg in the box, you know that, right?"

She promptly set the box down on the ground, and dug around the egg – smaller and a darker blue than Barry's was – before she unearthed a smaller package. Faith sniffed at it curiously, but decided that the egg was more interesting, and tried to paw at it playfully.

"Is that a pen?" Barry asked, wrinkling his nose at how slowly she was unwrapping her packages. It wasn't like she was going to be reusing that little bit of wrapping paper, so Barry didn't see the point on her being so careful taking it off.

"I don't think so." But it was easy to see why he might think so. The package was small, and rectangular in shape. It was also rather slim, much like the case for an expensive, fancy pen would be.

Setting aside the paper, Dawn looked at the plain black box in her hand. She had a pretty good idea of what would be inside, even as she opened the lid.

It wasn't a pen – instead, it was a set of three hairclips, much like the ones she usually wore. This one was a light blue, different from the yellow and pink ones from previous years, but other than their colouring they were identical to the ones she wore now, and the pink ones sitting in a drawer in her room.

"Nice," Barry said, not really meaning it. Hair accessories were meaningless to him.

She looked at the hairpins, and then at the egg. No note, as usual, but she knew who sent them. "Yeah," she said quietly with a small smile. They _were_ nice.

They moved onto other gifts after Dawn set them aside carefully.

* * *

It used to be that Yule was celebrated for twelve days. As much as Dawn liked the idea of partying and feasting, twelve days was a bit too heavy for her liking. Yule was more special when they crammed everything into one day.

The next day, while their parents slept off the previous night, Dawn and Barry grabbed their Pokémon. Since their eggs weren't even twitching or showing any signs of hatching soon, they wrapped them up and left them in warm places. Then, they left to meet up with Lucas.

The plan was that they were going to hang out, just walking around and goofing off. They didn't get to spend Yule together, since their families didn't really know each other, and Lucas had cousins coming down from Snowpoint, but the day after was good for doing nothing except recovering. Dawn thought maybe her Pokémon would get to start learning new moves from their Yule gifts. It would have been nice trying them against a varied assembly of Pokémon instead of on their own.

That had been the plan – to do nothing – but when they got to Sandgem, they found things a little different.

Professor Rowan, dressed in a light blue coat, was speaking with a ranger, who Dawn and Barry stared at for a few seconds before Dawn remembered her manners and nudged Barry in his side. The ranger was tall and dark-skinned, with a shock of golden hair a deeper shade than Barry's. Definitely not mainland Sinnohan.

But that wasn't what made him stand out and the two of them so wide-eyed. What made them stare was the scar running down the left side of his face, through his eye.

Lucas hurried over to them, giving them a place to rest their eyes without being rude. "Hey," he huffed. "Sorry, I think we might have to cancel plans for today."

"What's going on?" Dawn asked slowly. Sandgem looked as sleepy as ever, with the exception of Professor Rowan, that ranger, and Lucas.

"There's some Pokémon migrating down south from central Sinnoh," Lucas said.

Dawn blinked. "Okay?" Most Pokémon unable to deal with Sinnoh's harsh winters usually used their mobility and moved to warmer places. That didn't seem like too weird of a thing to be worried about.

Lucas understood where her confusion came from, and hurried to explain. "These Pokémon are coming from the area near Floaroma, where the weather is usually pretty consistent and warmer in the winter. They normally don't migrate out of there because that valley provides good shelter. Most Pokémon migrate _to_ that place for the winter."

Oh, that _would_ make things a little different.

"What Pokémon are migrating?" Barry asked, seemingly interested.

"Um, Pachirisu, Buizel, Luxio, and Magmar."

Dawn thought Barry would lose interest, but his face turned thoughtful. "Magmar's a fire-type, right?" he asked for clarification.

Lucas nodded.

Barry turned to Dawn. "You should catch one," he said immediately.

"Huh?" Lucas looked at Barry.

"Why?" Dawn asked, wondering what was up.

Barry tapped his foot. "You don't have a fire-type," he explained. "Remember what they were always talking about in survival tips? Sinnohan trainers should always have at least one fire-type."

Well, yes, she remembered that. But she hadn't really needed a fire-type so far, and she didn't know much about Magmar.

At the mention of survival, however, Lucas seemed more interested. "You know, he's right," he said slowly. "A fire-type might be good for your team."

"It's not like I have enough ground-type weaknesses on my team, right?" Dawn joked, but she was gradually getting more and more warmed up to the idea now that they were talking about it. Helios was away, and while she called Lucian constantly to check on his progresses, it still meant that he wasn't on the team. And they had a point – she didn't have a fire-type.

She dug out her Pokédex and looked up Magmar. "Fire – they live in _volcanoes_?"

"They like volcanic regions," Lucas corrected. "They prefer warmer places, which is why the small population that resides in Sinnoh usually lives in the Floaroma area. And on Stark Island, I think?"

"Looks pretty strong," Barry noted. "It's good for you, Dawn. You're the only one of us that doesn't have a fire-type. You need it."

Lucas was getting excited. "Oh, did you know Professor Rowan was one of the researchers that discovered how Magmar evolved a few years ago? He found a way to stabilize its evolution using this box called a Magmarizer, which was really cool because he first got the idea after inventing a cataclysm for Electabuzz. The two lines are pretty similar, so he was looking to see whether they have some connections genetically, or if it's just the overload on energy that pushes them into their final forms, and-"

"It evolves again?" Barry said, having picked up only one part from that long monologue.

Lucas didn't mind the interruption. "Into a Magmortar! And those are really strong! There was this guy that came to work with us and he specialized in fire-types, and they tested out the Magmarizer on his Magmar and it evolved! It used to be that for them to evolve, the Magmar would have to do something dangerous like dive into lava or something but this way is much safer and easier."

Dawn pressed a few buttons on her Pokédex, and the Magmar on the screen changed to a bigger, stronger-looking version of itself. She flipped the page back into the Magmar, and then flipped to the page before, where she found the page on Magby. That seemed far smaller and less dangerous.

If she did catch a Magmar – and she was liking the idea – then this would be the first Pokémon she caught that had already evolved once. It made her nervous, but at the same time, she did have five badges, and other strong Pokémon. She could handle this, right?

Right.

"Just in case, though, we should ask Ranger Tucker if it's okay. He did come here to track the Pokémon."

"And he's Ranger Tucker, right?" Dawn asked, nodding to the professor's direction without looking.

"Correct."

She jumped, surprised, at the unfamiliar voice. She flushed slightly when she saw that the scarred ranger was standing closer to them than he had before.

He looked at all three of them, easily towering over their heads with his superior height. Dawn tried not to stare too much at his scar. She thought she failed.

"You're a trainer?" he asked at last. His voice was quiet, but clear and cut deep like the cold of the air.

"Yes. I have five badges," Dawn added, in case he doubted her as a trainer. She was the shortest one amongst the three of them, and that could make him underestimate her. Heck, her being a girl could make him underestimate her.

He blinked, but didn't look away. She maintained eye contact while simultaneously trying not to stare at his scar.

"We only have reports of a few Magmar that migrated into this area," Ranger Tucker said at last. "Dress sufficiently for the weather and be careful. Don't do anything reckless. Keep your Pokémon with you at all times, with at least one out next to you."

"R-right," she said.

He looked at them all one last time, and then returned to speak to the professor.

"He's . . . ." Lucas trailed off.

"Unnerving," Dawn said quietly.

"_Cool_," Barry breathed out, eyes sparkling.

"I was going to say 'intense'." Lucas grinned. "But you know what, those work too. Don't worry, Dawn. He's not a bad guy. He's just a little like the professor – taciturn and serious."

Feeling slightly bad for judging someone by their appearance, Dawn turned her mind on catching another Pokémon. "So," she said. "I'm guessing that the Magmar aren't just wandering around town?"

Lucas led them northwards, out of Sandgem and into Route 202. "See that?" he said, once the town was out of sight.

Dawn looked at the tree he pointed towards, sooty ice covering burned bark. Snow surrounded the frozen area. "Snow melted, and then froze over again," she guessed.

"And scratch marks," Barry said, not willing to be left out. "Claws?"

"Exactly," Lucas said. "Roseanne – one of the professor's aides – saw burns on trees, and told him about it. He made some calls, and then Ranger Tucker came down and told us about what happened in the Valley area."

A bustling sound startled all three of them, and they turned just in time to see a Pachirisu leaping from a branch, displacing some of the precariously balanced snow onto the ground.

"He said there shouldn't be too much trouble," Lucas said, once the evergreen leaves stopped brushing against each other and making their rustling sounds. "And that they shouldn't be too violent."

"Good."

* * *

"And you're sure of this?"

Tucker nodded. "Your assistants were the first ones to discover that there was something wrong," he said. "They went to check it out, but were caught off-guard by a panicked group of Lairon.

Nathaniel frowned. Tucker had first reported that two of his senior field assistants and Pokédex carriers had been hospitalized, for concussions and broken bones. Harrison and Misty were both hard workers and close to the family, and the news that they had been injured enough to land in the hospital had worried him and Bertha.

Then, the ranger had delivered even more worrying news – that not only had Fuego Ironworks been broken into over the holidays, and much of the facilities left destroyed, but that something in the area had scared off the wild Pokémon.

Or captured them in bulk.

So far the police thought it was an act of severe vandalism. They were investigating it, as requested by Fuego, but thinking it was just a radical environmentalist behind the action, protesting against Fuego's close location to Floaroma and the town's meadows.

"The wild Pokémon that scattered should be fine," Tucker said. "Most of them aren't troublemaking types, and they'll eventually go back once the scare's worn off. We'll keep looking into what happened, Professor Rowan."

"Good."

* * *

Allen and Neptune out at their side, they walked on, looking for more burned trees. The constant white was beginning to burn at her eyes, so she stared up at the sky – blue and clear – for a moment to let her eyes rest. Her breath, fogging in the cold air, dispersed as it floated upwards to join the clouds.

Themis was flying around in circles above, searching. Every now and then she returned to shake her head, before flying back. She looked really cold, but braved it well and flapped hard to keep in the air.

"Maybe I can send Cupid out?" Lucas suggested as the Golbat flew away for the third time. "She looks tired."

"Starling could help," Barry offered. "He's got sharp eyes."

Good point. Themis, being a Golbat, would naturally have less developed sight than a predator bird like a Staraptor.

"Thanks," she said, when Themis flew back hurriedly. "You found one?"

Themis turned and began leading them away from the direction of Sandgem. They followed, and had to struggle through some deeply piled snow. Rolling her eyes, Themis flew back and snatched Dawn up by the back of her coat. She scrambled to get Neptune's Poké ball and return him before Themis flew onwards.

"We'll catch up!" Barry shouted from behind. Dawn waved behind her back to let him know she had heard.

A short flight later, Themis dropped low to a small clearing and let her down, thinking that she would be able to stand on top of the white crust. Not only did the snow's crust fail to support her weight, but Dawn sunk straight through the snow, and found that it was piled up enough to reach past her waist.

This was going to be hard to move around in.

Dawn began to carefully step on the snow around her so that she could make a makeshift platform of compressed snow or something to stand on without being buried to the waist in the cold wet stuff when she heard a squawk. She looked up to see a Magmar, next to a tree at the edge of a grove, staring at her and Themis curiously.

Oh. Right. She was here because Themis had found a Magmar.

Well, the fire-type didn't seem too wary of them. Dawn lifted a hand and waved. "Hi," she said, figuring it wouldn't hurt to be friendly. "I'm going to catch you. Is that okay?"

Themis made some sounds next to her as she hovered in the air, leathery wings flapping hard to maintain her flight.

The Magmar seemed to consider it, and then opened its beak-like mouth to blow forth some balls of bluish fire towards Themis. It didn't look like a strong, damaging attack, but looks were deceptive.

"Dodge!"

Themis, who had been about to take the seemingly weak will-o-wisp, shot upwards. The ghostly fire sailed past her and landed in the snow, where it created a lot of steam and hissing sounds as it died out.

"Confuse ray," Dawn said, eyeing the Magmar as she dug for Neptune's Poké ball and an empty sphere.

The flashing lights twirled to the wild Magmar's face, but it averted its eyes and breathed out a flamethrower. Themis avoided the stream of fire, but a tree behind her was scorched because of it. Only the snow-piled branches, which melted into water, made it too damp to burst into flames.

"Dawn!" Barry's voice called. He and Lucas – on Cupid – were in the sky, but not landing in the small grove like she had. "You got this?"

"Air cutter! Yeah, we've got this!"

Leathery wings whipped furiously, and blades of air tore through the space between her Golbat and the Magmar. The fire-type grunted when most of them hit target, and Dawn grinned. She began to get ready to throw the great ball in her hand when the Magmar began glowing a fiery red.

Suddenly wary, Dawn released Neptune – right before the Magmar seemed to explode in flames, and an infernal wave washed over a radius of two meters with the fire-type as its center.

It wasn't far enough to reach Neptune – or Dawn – but it was enough to make the Empoleon tense cautiously. Themis, who had caught the last of the scorching wave, looked a little startled. The fire, finding nothing to catch and burn, extinguished, but it had melted a great deal of the snow. Dawn could hear water running, just barely over the sound of steam hissing and dispersing. She couldn't see the Magmar through the thick, opaque barrier it had created.

"Are you okay?" Lucas called.

"We're fine!" Dawn replied. "Neptune, bubble!"

The bubbles flew into the steam, and the hot air gave them a boost so they wouldn't sink easily to the ground. There didn't seem to be a response, and Dawn frowned. The Magmar was brightly coloured – even in the steam, now thinning out, it shouldn't have been too hard to miss.

Cloaked in dark energy, the Magmar suddenly charged out towards Themis. A fist wrapped in fire punched her in her side, and Themis shrieked angrily.

"Bubble beam!"

Neptune exhaled, and this time the bubbles were focused and faster. They burst harshly on the Magmar's spiked back, and drew its attention to him.

The Magmar looked at Neptune with a challenging grin and clacked its beaks together. Neptune, not even fazed, simply continued to look at the Magmar.

Themis, however, didn't see the point in the dramatic stare-down. Somewhat recovered from the surprise hit, she dropped down and bit the Magmar on its shoulder. Not the neck, but close enough to remind the fire-type that she was still a threat.

It backfired when the Magmar's heated body burned the inside of her mouth. She screeched and slapped its head with a wing before another fire punch chased her off.

"Themis, return," Dawn said, as the Magmar and Neptune returned to their stare-down like nothing had interrupted them. Was this an okay time to throw a Poké ball at the Magmar?

The Magmar whipped its head back, and then swung forwards like it was sneezing in an exaggerated manner. Except instead of forcefully expelling air and sound, it let out a flamethrower.

Dawn ducked at the sight of fire coming, but Neptune, encased in water, shot forwards like a jet of water. The flamethrower followed him, trying to catch him, but even with snow, steam and melted water everywhere, Neptune was faster. He got behind the Magmar and slammed straight into its unprotected side, knocking it over.

"Brine!"

The deluge of salt water he let down around the Magmar was enough to put an end to the flames it had in its mouth.

Not wanting to waste her chance, Dawn threw the great ball. The Magmar was sucked into it, and Neptune got back onto his webbed feet, brushing off his steel-tipped wings like he had just finished a tedious task.

And then the ball burst open, and he was met with a fire punch to the side of his face. The Magmar laughed at the offended look it managed to bring out before Neptune doused everything around – the Magmar included – in a heavy dose of a water sport.

The Magmar shook itself off to the best of its abilities, and laughed. It looked like it was having fun.

"You like battling?" Dawn asked.

In reply it swung at Neptune with two more fire punches. The Empoleon, tired of the Magmar using the cheap trick of aiming for his face, blocked with metal claws.

"Good." Dawn took out another ball – this one an ultra ball – and tossed it while the two Pokémon were grappling with each other. This time, Neptune kept a wary eye on the shaking sphere just in case the Magmar broke out again.

It didn't. A ding of confirmation told both of them that the capture was a success.

"Yes!" Dawn moved as fast as she could through the snow to the spot where most of the ice was melted, and picked up the ultra ball. "Great job, Neptune!"

Neptune eyed the grove, considerably messier than it had been before, and then the ball holding her new Pokémon clutched in her hand. Somehow, he got the feeling that this one might be a bit of a troublemaker.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Sekhmet (Luxray), Faith (Eevee), Frejya (Lopunny), Neptune (Empoleon), Themis (Golbat), Medusa (Tangrowth)

Home: Egg, Magmar

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mr. Mime), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash), Egg

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

**AN**: Merry Christmas! Somehow I made the timing fit the story. Awesome.

Anesidora is another name for Pandora, which is also the name of a brand that sells charm bracelets.

Harrison, Misty - Hareta, Mitsumi of _Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!_ Manga. Ranger Tucker - Toki from _Pokémon Try Adventure Manga_.

Titanium is now over 150 reviews, and my most reviewed story! Thank you all (special thanks and welcome to rexilius and Emmanuel Park)!

In reply to the guest reviews: Some of your concerns might be addressed further in future chapters. Plus I'm not very good at characterization, so thank you for your critique! I'll work harder to write better.

As for romance, my current mindset for writing that stuff is 'isn't couple making/breaking fun'. The major characters in the series are pretty young, which means that crushes/love might come up, but it might not go anywhere/stay together forever (also because I'm not very good at writing romance). I'm still choosing people to kill off, couples to break up through some reason or another and stuff like that. Pokémon is so fun – there's so many possible victims and accidents waiting to happen. I mean characters and potential interactions.

(No one's getting out of this alive mwah ha ha ha)

Besides, Rocco dies; Dawn eventually ends up with Red after her first boyfriend breaks her heart and her second boyfriend Hilbert is murdered because of her; an older Lisia falls in love with Silver from HGSS while on a world tour; and Brendan nearly joins Sevii royalty by marrying Leaf/Green, only to elope with Kate the Pokémon Ranger after someone objects at the wedding like a cheesy love song. Don't worry too much about early crushes. Keep an open mind and have fun with it!

Spoiler alert, BTW.

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...

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JK (Or am I? Who knows? I just considered actually making that happen, and this isn't too far off from how my thought processes for the future of this series go. Isn't couple-making/breaking fun).

One last note: **If any reader can read and write Japanese and is willing to help out, would you mind contacting me?**


	29. New Year's Reunion

A.S.108

January 1st

_This is the best New Year's banquet ever._

* * *

If someone asked Dawn what her favourite holiday was, she would have chosen Yule without a second thought. Other days commemorating holy events and dates were nice and all, but Yule was something special, not _just_ because of the gifts that she received, but also because of the meaning behind it. Giving for the reason of giving.

Even if her main reason _was_ for getting presents, she liked the idea behind the holiday.

If someone asked what her least favourite holiday was, though, she'd give it some thought and then pick New Year's Eve-slash-Day. There were some reasons she could give if they pressed her on her reasons, such as it being too close to Yule and making her feel all partied out, or not really being necessary in her opinion, or not being all that special.

No one asked, so she never needed to give her fake reasons, or the real one.

The real reason she didn't really like New Year's was because on the last day of the year, the Steele Family held a long banquet till the first hours of the next year had begun. And that meant that she had to go to the Main House and stay there for hours amongst family members. _Hours_. In stiff, 'good' clothes while having her strength sapped by the effort of being a 'good' girl.

She was really tired of going and being disappointed and sitting through all the gazes, be they of pity or slight contempt or just plain disinterest.

"I think I have a stomach-ache," she said, rubbing at her belly through the cloth of her dress. Dark blue, prim, with woolen stockings and glossy enamel shoes, she looked like a little china doll. Her new hairpins matched the dress and completed the look. "Can I stay home?"

"You had a stomach-ache last year," Johanna said, finishing her makeup. Nothing too fancy – just a few light touches. "Be more creative."

Creative with sicknesses. Wonderful. And last year that stomach-ache had been real, but she had been a good girl and gone anyways. Add to that the stress and the disappointment at the dinner, and Dawn had been bedridden for three days afterwards.

"Sore throat?" she said off the top of her head, and knew it was lame.

Her mom didn't even bat an eye. "Your voice sounds fine."

Dawn made a face. She didn't get sick that often, and it was hard coming up with something that sounded plausible. Curse her healthiness.

"I could have sprained my ankle," she offered. "While training my new Pokémon. Or while spending time studying with Professor Rowan."

All possible, since she, Lucas and Barry had been spending a lot of time over at Sandgem Beach training. A lot of Dawn's focus went to her new Magmar, but she spent time working with her other Pokémon as well. Professor Rowan sometimes joined them, claiming that he wanted fresh air and bringing some papers to read with him. He didn't do anything like make one of their Pokémon evolve again, but he did give some advice at least once every visit.

But her mom pointed out the flaws. "The former makes you a careless trainer, the latter makes Professor Rowan a careless supervisor. Try again."

Her next excuse was going to have been that she burned herself while spending time with her newly caught Magmar, but that offering died on her lips when she realized that her mom could – and would – just give the same reason as before.

Now that she had Pokémon of her own, she didn't want to be called a careless trainer. And she liked the professor too much to drag his name through the mud for her selfish excuse.

She sighed instead and offered another reason. "I'm busy watching Eggy?"

The egg had begun to twitch in her care, which had been earlier than expected. Dawn thought that in another month or so it might hatch, because that was what Professor Rowan had said after seeing it.

"Pretty good," Johanna said in a voice that sounded like she thought the exact opposite, and smoothed her hair. "Alright, ready to go?"

"Busy watching the egg," Dawn reminded her, even as she stood up and grabbed her black purse. This one was bigger than a clutch, but that was fine. It held some Pokémon medicine, a packaged gift and a Poké ball belt. The more allies she had there with her, the better.

No matter what excuses she came up with, Dawn knew she was going to have to go to this one like she always did. Her mom was intent on taking her, and she doubted there was a force that could sway Johanna Steele from something she had her mind set on.

She sighed one last time, and then stopped moping externally. If she kept this up, her mom's patience would be worn out, and then there would be even more negativity in the air. Best to try and keep a positive outlook.

Even though she really didn't see one.

* * *

A lot of people thought that the Steeles were a huge family, like the clans of Indigo, with hundreds of members belonging to it. That actually wasn't true. There were barely a hundred people in the family, spouses and distant cousins included, but the reason it was thought to be bigger than it actually was belonged to the sheer influence the Steeles had in Sinnoh. They could be seen holding important positions, which was why the misconception about the family's size existed. The name just popped up a lot everywhere in Sinnoh.

Being the rich family it was, the Steeles had family-owned properties all around Sinnoh, and even in some other regions. Real estate was a pretty solid form of investment that could be counted on long term, and having land always made for good appearances. Nothing said 'rich, prestigious family' like mansions with the family name and crest on it.

The Steele Family Main House, located on the east side of Canalave, was one that would probably never be sold as long as the family was able to hold on to it. It was the first parcel of land the family had purchased and built after Arlon Steele had made the family great, and held significance as a physical reminder to Western Sinnoh which family had accomplished so much in the region. She heard that the Steele influence in their home turf wasn't quite like what the clans in Kanto and Johto had in their respective territories, but even so her family wasn't a force that could be ignored, at least in Sinnoh.

From when she was young, as long as she could remember, Dawn had imagined castles to look like either the Sinnohan League's Headquarters, or the Steele Manor. The latter wasn't overly fancy, but the architecture was sophisticated in its simplicity, and grand enough to make one feel almost insignificant, especially if one was as used to a smaller, less grand home like Dawn was.

Really, all the 'house' with the bluish-gray walls was missing was a moat and a drawbridge. Maybe it wasn't the princess-y palaces of Kalosian folk tales, but there was majesty in its pale blue-gray bricks, a solid strength that couldn't be denied.

But if the outside looked like a strongly fortified, stout castle, the insides felt too distant. Nicely, richly furnished and all with expensive furniture and paintings and fancy wallpaper and whatever applied to good interior decorating, but cool and distant. It put her on edge.

That applied to most of the people as well. She followed her mom around the first floor's rooms in greeting the relatives, and after looking around and finding herself disappointed at the results, focused on staying as silent and unseen as possible – being tiny helped, sometimes – and speaking only when spoken to.

Not many had cause to make conversation with her, though. And she had no real reason to talk to them, either.

In this she let her mom take care of everything, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute and hiding it as best as she could behind a mask. It probably wasn't very effective here, though, when there were people capable of reading the emotions and moods of others present.

Her mom had, when Dawn asked, described the Steele-brand of Sight as something related to aura. Everything had an aura, but what could be seen or noticed depended on the individual's Sight.

There were a lot of different 'powers' of the sixth sense that were discussed – and often doubted – but to a Steele, the Sight was important. Some started off with it 'open' – working already at birth. Others had to work at it to get it opened in the first place. And then there were the rare ones like her who were completely Blind, with no chance of ever Seeing what some others could see, no matter how much time and effort she put into it.

"It's nothing like the movies, where a psychic can just _sense_ everything," Johanna said, trying to answer her daughter when she asked what having the Sight was like. But how did one describe colour to a blind person? "It might be because my Sight isn't the best, but what I see is how energy flows around a Pokémon while it uses a move. What different type of energy is used, where it concentrates, any blockages to the flow, et cetera."

There were people who could see other things. Dawn's grandfather could read the emotions of others, and combined with his keen eye for detail and experience of dealing with all sorts of people, work as a near-infallible cold reader. It was how he managed to rule the family with an iron fist after his father, a former Champion, died.

She wasn't good enough to fool him – and she doubted that she would ever be able to reach a state of control over her emotions to ever fool him in his lifetime.

Still, he wasn't the only person that she would see in the evening, and she knew that she needed to be polite.

Their walk through the large room wasn't aimless or random. Her mom's eyes had landed upon one figure in the back since entering, but because he was in conversation with one of Dawn's uncles, had been slowly making her way towards him so as to time her approach of him. When Johanna's brother was dismissed by a nod, she walked up to the stern-looking old man in a light gray suit, and Dawn followed her.

He wasn't the tallest man around – the genes that made her short popped up occasionally in other Steeles as well, thankfully – but he was only slightly shorter than the average Sinnohan's height and definitely taller than her, which added to his already imposing figure. His eyes, while surrounded by creases that looked carved into his face, were sharp, and he was robust for a man his age. Johanna inclined her head, and Dawn bowed to hide and compose her face while showing respect.

"Dad," Johanna said, reaching out and hugging the old man. "Good to see you're healthy still."

"Heh," replied Grandfather gruffly. "Like you're not just waiting for me to drop dead."

But he still hugged her back, before he released his only daughter to look at his only Blind granddaughter. "And Dawn."

She stiffened. He was never cruel, but he was usually distant with most of his grandchildren and his sons, holding them at arm's length. His eldest son, he had favoured, and Johanna was his only daughter, which automatically gave her preference.

That preference, however, didn't extend to Dawn. "Yes, Grandfather," she said, careful to speak clearly.

Her grandfather looked at her with cool eyes. "You're a trainer now. Five badges, your mother tells me, and in less than a year's time?"

Verbal answers, no nodding. "Yes, Grandfather."

He hnned, like Professor Rowan. Except she felt more comfortable with Professor Rowan than she did with her own grandfather. How odd. Under the professor's gaze she was nervous, but also hopeful. Under Grandfather's gaze she was nervous and wanted to leave the area quickly.

Whatever he Saw – if he even had his Sight 'on', that was – he didn't find it worth his time to comment on. "Impressive," he said. "Can't say it's for the best that you're working with Rowan, but you're proving your worth. Keep up the good work – make me proud. Live up to the Steele name."

Dawn clenched her jaw discreetly. She wasn't doing this for the name, or to make him proud. She was doing this for herself, and her Pokémon.

But Dawn kept her mouth shut and didn't tell him that. She was young, but not _that_ young. "Yes, Grandfather."

He nodded and turned to Johanna to talk about the family business, and that was a clear, wordless dismissal. Now that she had permission to beat it, Dawn retreated out of the room as fast as she could without actually bolting.

Once she was past the twenty-something men and women of various ages – mostly branch family and distant relatives who were deemed important and active within the family – and in the hallway, where it was empty, she sighed in relief as she dug out Faith's Poké ball from her bag. First of the hard part – complete.

The Eevee, already briefed on the night's plans, didn't panic when she found herself in an unfamiliar hallway with strange scents. She focused her energy on being curious instead, sniffing and pawing at the thick carpet that her small feet sank into.

Just looking at her drained the tension from her shoulders, which had stiffened up without her being aware of it. Smiling, Dawn scratched the ruff around her neck. "Good to have you here," she said to Faith, who purred.

Now she just had to deal with dinner and –

"Hey, Dawn."

And the cousins.

"Oh my gosh it's an Eevee!"

Dawn turned her head and saw the twins. Lawrence stood with his hand extended in a wave, while Summer was outright ignoring Dawn and dashing towards Faith, eyes lit up with glee. Not enjoying this seemingly rabid girl reaching for her, Faith hissed and raised her fur on edge.

Completely undeterred and not at all scared by the display, Summer reached out and snatched Faith up, smothering her in hugs. "It's so cute!" she squealed.

"Faith, no," Dawn said sternly when she saw her Eevee bare her teeth, ready to bite her way to freedom. Faith made a grumbling growl before she was crushed against Summer's chest again. "Summer, can I have my Eevee back?"

"_No_," Summer replied, and stuck her tongue out. Dawn found herself dismaying when she saw that Summer, standing straight, was slightly taller than her. Last year, Summer had been the shorter one. "I'm keeping it."

"Summer, put her down – you're hurting her," Dawn said as calmly as she could even though she was beginning to lose her patience. She was now (probably) officially the shortest member of the family, and Summer was harassing poor Faith. And then Faith was just going to attack eventually when she lost _her_ temper and it was probably going to be Dawn's fault even if Summer completely deserved it because Faith was Dawn's Pokémon and therefore her responsibility.

Grandfather had four children. The first two were sons, the third Johanna, and the fourth another son. Lawrence and Summer, cousins from the 'main' family, were the youngest uncle's kids. They were born in the same year as Dawn, although her birthday was in February and theirs was in November.

Johanna, sometimes, after meeting them, would say in the privacy of their home that those months made a huge difference in maturity levels between Dawn and the fraternal twins.

Privately, Dawn agreed.

"It's fine, she likes it – ow!" Faith, who clearly had _not_ liked it, had lost her patience and nipped one of Summer's poking fingers. When Summer dropped her, Faith landed on her feet and hurried towards Dawn. She liked attention but this, this was too much.

Dawn picked her up, and held her as loosely as she could without making it uncomfortable for the Eevee. "I told you," she couldn't help but say.

Summer looked betrayed. "She bit me!"

"I don't blame her," Lawrence said with a mischief-filled smile. Now that he was closer, it was obvious that he was taller than Summer. Dang it. "Hey, Dawn, haven't seen you in a while."

Since almost _exactly_ a year ago, give or take a few hours, but who was counting?

Dawn repeated some polite greetings back to him. He was the more mature of the fraternal twins, but that was only in comparison to Summer. He got into some crazy misadventures on his own a lot, and often exacerbated the problems by dragging his sister into them.

Honestly, the two of them made Barry look tame. _Barry_. Look and feel _tame_.

Now that Faith had been rescued, and she had exchanged some words with Summer and Lawrence, Dawn began to plot her retreat. Could she hide out in a bathroom far from here, pretend she drowned in the toilet or something? A little embarrassing, but maybe. She could spend it with her Pokémon, and act like she hadn't noticed time passing. She wasn't even wearing a watch – all the more reason that she lost track of time.

Or maybe she could pretend she got lost while looking for the library. That could also work, and it was a believable excuse. At least to her mom, who knew about her horrible sense of directions, it would be.

Her plotting was put to an end when yet another cousin – a young man with smiling eyes and messy dark blue hair – joined the club of awkward, not-very-close relations that only existed because of blood bonds. "I thought it was getting loud out here."

New Years. While training a few days back, Dawn had asked what Barry and Lucas would be up to for the coming of a new year's beginning. Barry had said that he and his family would just have dinner, and then go do something spectacularly spontaneous. No explanations – so Dawn guessed that it was going to be something that would give Aunt Margaret a headache, like a dip into Lake Verity. They wouldn't be the only crazy weirdoes up there for polar dives on New Year's Eve, looking to start fresh with pneumonia.

Lucas said that his family would be spending it quietly. "Nothing special," he had said. "It's, well, just another day, and we don't celebrate it all that much in our family. At all, actually. We just enjoy the holiday by staying home and doing nothing except sleeping in."

She envied him _so_ much right now.

While Summer and Lawrence were somewhat friendly and bright by nature, Jonah and his half-sister were more distant. Jonah was, at least, amicable, but there was an insincerity in the way he treated them, and it showed through half-heartedness.

"Jonah!" Summer said loudly to the young man that had joined them. "Dawn's Eevee bit me!" She held up the finger – turned slightly red, but no permanent damage or scarring – to show him the 'grievous wound'.

From the way she was acting, one could have thought that Faith had done some serious damage, like bitten off her finger. Which Dawn was starting to wish her Eevee had done. Perhaps that would have taught her a lesson.

"You were hurting her," Dawn defended Faith, starting to feel impatient. "Summer, you have Pokémon – you know that they won't like it if you treat them roughly."

At least, she was _pretty_ sure Summer had Pokémon. Sure, a pet Pokémon that was meant to be a companion and not a battler, but a Pokémon nonetheless.

"Is this the new meeting hall?" Jonah's half-sister Brenda joined them as well, further nixing Dawn's plans of escaping. Almost all the cousins of the 'main' family were gathered – but not the _one_ person she wanted to see, as usual. Dawn braced herself for another New Year's dinner of disappointment. "Where all the kids are supposed to go?"

Jonah turned his smiling eyes towards the older woman. "Oh, so you admit you're a kid as well, Brenda?"

Brenda scowled at the younger man. "Shut up, Jonah."

"Language," he admonished. "There are children present."

"We're not kids," Lawrence and Summer said in unison.

"The fact that you have to defend yourselves just proves that you're still children."

Dawn considered sneaking away and finding another quiet spot. Maybe she could go to a bathroom on the second floor and pretend to be sick there. She doubted anyone – except maybe two people – would even notice she was gone. Or care, for that matter.

Wait, better make that one. Because the other didn't count.

"Ah, that's right." Brenda's eyes swept over them all, and landed on Dawn. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Faith in her arms. "You're all trainers now."

Jonah's older sister, Brenda, wasn't a bad person – according to Johanna, anyways. She was polite to adults, and an ambitious, confident young woman.

She just didn't like babysitting her younger cousins, because she viewed her cousins as competition. Even Dawn – although it wasn't really about Dawn, it was more about Brenda's one-sided rivalry with Grandfather's favourite grandchild. There was that incident from a few years ago, but the awkwardness from that event had dulled over time, leaving behind a not-very-close relationship.

Dawn could tell where this conversation was going, and it took all she had not to frown. Yes, they were all trainers. But were they on the same level? They'd been trainers longer than she had, and that wasn't all that set them apart.

Brenda – and Jonah – were both Ace Trainers. They were members of an international program that provided its members with all sorts of 'benefits' meant to help them become better than the competition, such as money, ways to come into contact with large sponsors and invitations to exclusive events. Not anyone could join – the application process alone took six months _minimum_, and that was under special circumstances. It was said that only one out of a hundred applicants were accepted, after reviewing the trainer's record and going through more than one interview for consideration.

Dawn didn't look away from Brenda's dark blue eyes. She wasn't much for staring contests – Barry was a horrible person to practice staring contests with, because he _just would not stay still long enough to do it seriously_ – but she could hold her cousin's gaze long enough without blinking.

Her brave face didn't matter, though. Brenda was confident that she could take her in a battle, and more importantly, she wanted to crush Dawn. It wasn't a battle for the glory or the fun of it.

"And when the eyes of trainers meet," Brenda said with a smirk, "they battle. Battle room, full six-on-six. What do you say?"

Jonah sighed, and slung an arm around his sister's shoulders, only to have it roughly shrugged off. He didn't falter, however. "Ah, Brenda, picking on the weak as usual. Dawn, you know she just wants an excuse to show off, don't take it personally. And a full battle seems like much. Why not cut it down a bit? Three-on-three seems fine."

The words, and the way Jonah said it was condescending. This was him knowing that Brenda just wanted to make herself look like a winner – even against a younger cousin – and giving Dawn the excuse to take the easy way out.

Not for her sake, Dawn thought. Just so he could battle her as well, probably, and look better for it.

Logically, the part of her mind that was comparing their history and track records, she was at a clear disadvantage.

Emotionally, however, her pride wouldn't let her back down from the challenge. Like she and her team would go down that easily. She knew Jonah was baiting that pride, trying to taunt her into being reckless, and as irritating as it would be to fall for the taunt, it would jab at her even more to let her pride fall in its stead.

Her grip on Faith tightened, and the Eevee growled – towards her cousins. They wanted a battle? She and her Pokémon would _give_ them a battle.

"Well, we're going to be here for _hours_," Brenda pointed out. "Might as well make an interesting use of our time. Full teams are fine."

Dawn cut in. "I'm good with either," she said.

* * *

Johanna herself wasn't particularly ostracized by her family. There was no reason to ostracize such a powerful, influential and successful figure. Even without the fame, Grandfather was immensely fond and proud of his only daughter – he just didn't show his emotions very well.

But it was her immediate family that had always been an issue. When she had chosen a 'nothing' man of orphan origins, there had been 'talks' – private, of course, since she was a celebrity and neither side of the debate wanted any news reaching tabloids – of disowning her from the family, which had started heated and escalated into near-fist fights. It had very nearly happened, until Johanna's oldest– and favourite – brother stepped in with a compromise to give the nothing man something and _make_ him into an acceptable partner for her.

The frost from the fight hadn't had a chance to wear off when Dawn was born a few years later after two miscarriages, and found to have no gift of Sight.

Luckily for her, Dawn had been born in a time when it _wasn't_ okay or easy for a baby girl to be abandoned in the forest or at an orphanage, to parents who didn't care about what others said about having a 'disabled' daughter and loved her the way she was. Maybe if she'd been born forty years or so before, things might have gone a little bit differently, but Johanna had defended her like an angry mother Ursaring with rabies, and the relatives had backed off.

Around her, anyways. When Dawn was six and told right to her face by Jonah that she couldn't play with them because she was Blind and therefore useless, Johanna realized that just not talking about their view around her wasn't enough, and put her brother through the wringer for speaking about her daughter in such a way in front of his children. The fight escalated and went on until Grandfather had to step in and put an end to it nearly a year later. Dawn didn't know what it was he did or said, but talks about not accepting her as a Steele disappeared after that.

Johanna still tried to protect Dawn, but recognized that sometimes, there was nothing she could do except let Dawn fight some of her battles on her own, and make sure she knew that she'd always have her mom's support and love no matter what her extended family said about her 'behind her back'.

Her cousins weren't bullies. Most of the childish meanness was out of them by now, and while they weren't particularly warm or close to her, they weren't outright cruel. Except for the blood that they shared, and the name that brought them together for a dinner at the end of every year to see each other's faces, Dawn and most of her relatives might as well have been simple acquaintances, or near-strangers with an amicably distant relationship.

But the opposite of love wasn't supposed to be hate – it was supposed to be indifference. Family wasn't just bound by blood. It was the emotional bonds between them that made a close, loving family, and distance and indifference from most of the family had taught Dawn that family was what one made, not necessarily what one was born into. Barry and Aunt Margaret and Uncle Palmer were more family to her than some of her cousins.

And it was most likely the same for her relatives. They didn't hate her – being Blind wasn't strong enough of a reason to care enough to hate and pick on her, not when most people in the world lived without ever once consciously using their Sight. They just weren't close.

But for Brenda, there was a personal reason to dislike Dawn. Even if said reason hadn't shown himself or interfered for years now, she still didn't like Dawn because of him.

Dawn, walking towards her side of the private field, tried to clear her mind and focus on getting her game face on. Faith trotted ahead, so bold and ready and unlike how Dawn felt at the moment.

The sight of the small fluff ball gave her courage. She could do this – stand on her own against those that wanted to look down on her. She didn't need someone else to fight for her.

Who would be best first? Neptune? He could prep the field for Sekhmet to do a lot of damage. Maybe Medusa, who could spread some poison and take a lot of physical hits. Frejya was fast and strong. Themis, too.

And Faith . . . .

Dawn smiled down at her Eevee. Even if she wasn't the hardest hitter, she was still eager to fight. Dawn appreciated that.

"Three on three!" Jonah called, refereeing. Summer and Lawrence had both wanted to call dibs, but he had pulled the age card on them after the final agreement had been made to not go full teams. "The battle ends when one side has no eligible Pokémon left to battle! Or until dinner starts, whichever comes first."

She drummed her fingers against the cover of her purse, thinking fast on who to choose. Save the flier, save Neptune and Sekhmet's combo for later for greater impact, save Faith . . . .

Jonah raised his arm.

Dawn made her choice.

"Begin!" Jonah commanded.

"Frejya, go!"

"Irene, attack!"

Frejya appeared, crouched and ready to leap into action in a split second. She narrowed her pink eyes at the Pokémon she was met with – coincidentally enough, another Lopunny. What did they call this in tournaments and contests? A mirror match?

"Thunder punch!" Brenda shouted, and there wasn't a moment to waste on wondering what the right phrase was.

"Rock smash!"

Both Lopunny ran towards each other, swinging their fists towards each other. Orange force met lightning, and reacted to explode. Shoulders tensed, Frejya stepped back. Irene eyed her warily, and they began shifting on their deceptively delicate feet, side stepping in a slow circle.

It was her Lopunny's actions that tipped Dawn off to the level and strength of Brenda's Pokémon. Frejya was edgy and hesitant to leap right in and tank all the hits while retaliating like she usually did. That meant that Irene was strong. Maybe even stronger than Frejya.

They needed to find a way to pin her down, and knock her out as quickly as possible. Frejya was one of the two Pokémon that had actually mastered her Yule gift TM's move – the other being Medusa – and Dawn thought that a giga impact, if it landed, could end Irene pretty quickly.

Brenda wasn't going to remain as guarded. Not when she was confident she could win swiftly. "Quick attack!"

Irene shot through the center of the circle, intent on grabbing her foe and throwing her to the ground by the throat. Frejya blocked most of the blow by pulling one ear in front of her body through a slight turn of her head, and lashed out with a fire punch. Irene pulled the same maneuver by twisting her neck and pulling her ear over the targeted area. The most damage done was burnt fur, and Frejya had to step to the left to avoid the incoming blow to her opened front.

"Ice punch!" Dawn shouted. Maybe freezing the foe Lopunny would slow its movements – cool her down a bit. Frejya twisted back the fist that had been engulfed in fire, and swung her other fist, encased in freezing blue energy.

Brenda was more interested in burning her, however. "Fire punch!"

Two fists met head on, and there was a loud crunching sound followed by steam hissing angrily. Dawn winced and crossed her fingers, hoping that the crunch had been ice and not bone breaking.

"Dizzy punch!"

The tan fur around Irene's fists hardened and glowed like a confuse ray as she swung, tapping a hard beat against Frejya's ears. The rhythmic, bright punches had to be prevented from hitting Frejya and confusing her.

"Fire punch!"

Frejya must have been feeling slightly desperate. Normally, her fire punches were well-controlled, but right now her entire fist seemed to be burning. If she wasn't careful, she would hurt herself more than she hurt her opponent.

Luck was on their side, though. Irene squealed – a sound Dawn didn't remember ever hearing from Frejya – when a nearly uncontrolled fire punch slugged her in her abdomen.

"Return!"

Dawn blanked slightly in confusion, and then made her choice. "Rock smash!"

Flaming fist buried in Irene's gut, Frejya pulled back her other fist just as Irene surged forwards, gritting her teeth and pushing with everything she had. Frejya was, unfortunately, slightly weaker in this fight of force, and was thrown a few meters away onto her back by the other Lopunny's strength.

Irene flipped back her ears, smiling smugly in confidence of her victory. Frejya narrowed her eyes.

"Frejya, quick attack! Tackle down!"

In a blur of movement, faster than the eye could clearly see, Frejya sprang back up onto her feet, and then into a predatory crouch before diving towards Irene's legs. Thrown off-balance, Irene fell, Frejya pinning her down as best as she could by straddling her.

"Nice!" Jonah hooted, and both Dawn and Brenda scowled at him.

Then, almost like it was choreographed, they turned their attention back to the battle.

"Get it off! Return!" Brenda barked.

"Don't let her! Rock smash!"

Irene may have been stronger, but Frejya had the advantage in angle and gravity helping her this time. She threw punch after punch, and while more than half of them didn't hit Irene due to the return or because she shifted to let them hit the ground instead, the blows that did land – on the shoulder, on the ears – were hurting Irene.

"Entangle maneuver number four, Irene!"

Irene threw both her legs up, encircled them around Frejya's neck, and then wrenched her hip to throw her off roughly, nearly twisting Frejya's head off with the force. Once Frejya no longer had her pinned down to the ground, she jumped back to her feet –

And then tripped over the roughed-up field. The Lopunny struggled with one leg, clutching at the ankle with both paws.

Perfect. "Giga impact!"

Frejya, enveloping her entire body in a greyish, pearl-tinted energy, surged forwards. Every step that hit the ground left craters as deep and wide as pie pans, and made a deep, roaring sound that rose in a crescendo by the second.

When the sound was like thunder crashing down, Frejya crushed Irene. Or, where Irene had been. The other Lopunny had slipped out at the last possible second with a quick roll of its body, and avoided being hit by the worst of the giga impact.

In the bathtub-sized crater left from the aftermath, Frejya crumpled onto her knees. She blinked and struggled to move, but after such an immense use of force, her muscles wouldn't respond so quickly to her will. She would be able to recover the energy to at least hobble out of the way in a few moments, but until that happened she was a sitting Psyduck.

Brenda knew that. "High jump kick!"

Irene shot into the air before diving downwards like a Staraptor on a hunt, force gathered around the powerful limb that smashed into Frejya's abdomen without mercy.

"Frejya!"

The blow was nearly as loud as the giga impact had been, and when the dust in the air settled down, Frejya was battered and lying on the ground, unconscious with Irene huffing but standing over her.

"Dawn's Lopunny is unable to battle! Three-two, Brenda!" Jonah called, gleefully playing the part of the referee.

"Irene was never stuck, by the way," Brenda told her as she returned Frejya. "We just pretended to be. You're not good enough at trapping to get us."

"Good job, Frejya," Dawn said, trying to ignore Brenda. But her words were definitely getting a reaction out of her. A protest was building up behind her lips, just wanting to come spilling out. Not good enough at trapping? That was only a possible consideration, not the end goal they'd been working at, and if Frejya's giga impact had hit, then –

Before her anger and resentment could cloud her decision and make her say something she might regret later on, Irene clutched at her stomach, wheezing, and fell onto the ground. She shuddered weakly a few times before stilling.

"Two-two," Jonah amended, sounding less amused than before, when Irene didn't get back up onto her feet.

Brenda frowned. "What did you do?" she asked Dawn sharply.

The accusatory tone made her bristle even further. It almost sounded like Brenda was accusing her of having done something to cheat.

But that split second from the distraction of Brenda's Lopunny collapsing cooled her temper enough for her to stay calm.

"Other than battle? Nothing," she said curtly. "Maybe Irene just got too worn out after fighting Frejya."

The frown deepened. "So you think your Pokémon were good enough to take Irene out?" she all but demanded.

_Yes_.

She didn't say _that_ out loud, of course. "I don't think Irene took _herself_ out," Dawn said, deliberately as child-like and innocent as she could, knowing that this would yank some nerves. The one that didn't lose her temper would win. "And she _was_ fighting Frejya."

Brenda didn't lose her temper. Pity. Instead she returned Irene, face a little more concentrated than before.

Jonah cleared his throat. "Your next Pokémon, both sides! On three, please. One!"

"If I may interrupt?"

Everyone turned at the firm voice that planned on interrupting regardless of whether he got permission to do so or not. The Main House's butler stood at the entrance to the battle room, looking as distinguished as ever.

"Young masters and misses, it's time for dinner," he said. "And while a good battle is always enjoyable, it won't do to keep everyone else waiting."

* * *

Grandfather led the prayer for grace before dinner, reciting the traditional Sinnohan prayer for gratitude before a meal over everyone's bowed heads. Despite his age and the many tables set up in the dining hall, his voice was steady and carried the prayer. The long version, that was, not the abbreviated "Lord Shaymin, we pay to you our gratitude for the blessed meal before us today, so mote it be" they did at home. Which, Dawn thought with guilt, she hadn't even done through her journey. She'd have to fix that.

She still knew the rituals of the longer version, however, and didn't have to worry about making mistakes. As Grandfather spoke in Sinnohan about hunting with a thankful mindset and blessed prey, she went through the motions but didn't really feel or express much of anything. She didn't feel particularly grateful for being here, she thought mutinously, but kept her eyes shut all the same and her hands pressed over her heart, the placement for those who dedicated their prayers through Mespirit.

"And in your names, so mote it be," Grandfather finished after listing Dialga, Shaymin and Mespirit and thanking them extensively not only for the food but for everything else.

"So mote it be," she mumbled, echoing his words like everyone else at the table, and the dinner started.

Dawn liked to think of herself as a fairly sociable person – she was told she was pretty likeable, and made friends easily enough when she wanted to. It was just around her family that she turned into a reclusive kind of person, one that kept quiet and went through the motions of chewing and swallowing the appetizers without really tasting them as those around made small talk.

She heard Uncle Damon talking proudly about Brenda and Jonah's latest achievements like he usually did to Grandfather, trying to make his children more appealing in the patriarch's eyes like a salesman pitching a product to an uninterested customer. Uncle Maurice and her mom were discussing Unovan politics – and disagreeing about certain politicians and their platforms. Judging from the sharpness that was beginning to give an edge to the smile on her face, Johanna was starting to get frustrated at her younger brother.

Some party – the atmosphere was so stiff. Dawn shifted, feeling so very unsure of herself in the place. It wasn't a cold room – Sinnoh's mercilessly cold winter couldn't beat the mansion's excellent central heating – but to her the room might as well have been made entirely out of never-melt ice with as how chilly and unwelcome the area felt to her.

And call her spoiled, but she didn't like staying where she was unwelcomed.

Dawn was in the middle of weighing the pros and cons of spilling the sour cream sauce on her dress to escape the dinner when the butler came in, looking slightly flustered. That was odd, Dawn thought, idly gnawing a little on her fork. He was a man who had been servant to the house for longer than her mom had been alive. What could have budged the unshakeable butler of steel?

The butler made his way to Grandfather's side and whispered something into his ear. Grandfather actually dropped his fork with a loud clang and turned his head to look at the servant with wide, surprised eyes, like the news he brought was something completely unexpected.

His reaction to whatever was said made everyone pay attention, wondering what was going on.

Grandfather didn't keep the rest of the family waiting in suspense for long. "It seems Riley will be joining us today," he said, nodding to the empty place set aside for his only absent grandchild. The genuine smile on his face deepened his wrinkles.

Murmurs arose around the table, but Dawn didn't bother to make out the words. She was too busy trying not to smile like she had won the biggest lottery in the world.

* * *

Her dad had been an orphan, so Dawn's knowledge of her extended family was limited to the Steeles. People close to her that weren't related didn't have large, complicated families, so Dawn couldn't say for sure that weird, dramatic stories always came with big families, but that was definitely the case for the Steeles.

Her mom's generation alone could have served as material for a good soap opera. The eldest son and his wife, met in an arranged marriage but lucky enough to have fallen in love with each other, sacrificed themselves to save their only son after a freak storm caused by a maddened Gyarados swarm appeared on their cruise ship's path and sunk the vessel. The second son divorced his first wife to marry his secretary after getting her pregnant, but still had to work together with his ex-wife and his second wife because business didn't wait for personal life. The only daughter and dear princess of her strict father, a famous celebrity in her own rights, risked cutting ties with her family to marry someone who arguably could be considered a pauper.

The only 'normal' one was the youngest son, and in the midst of his dramatic siblings his story almost seemed to be the odd one out.

Then there was all the drama with her direct cousins, although she'd heard some stories that bordered the ridiculous about her more distant relatives. Dawn and the twins were the youngest, then Jonah, then Brenda – although the two of them only had an eight-month difference in age – and finally, Riley.

Riley Steele was, unquestionably, Grandfather's favourite grandchild. He had the strongest Sight out of everyone in the family, and the ability to freely manipulate aura. Because of that, despite his young age of twenty-two, he was most likely to be the next Head of the Steele Family. As a person, other than what his family had given him, he was a patient, calm man with a strong will, smart despite being dyslexic, wise beyond his age, as well as a great trainer.

He was also, next to Johanna, Dawn's favourite member of her family. After his parents died when he was sixteen, Riley ended up coming and staying in Twinleaf with them for a few years, finishing his secondary education there. In that time, he become a brother to her, like Barry.

Unlike Barry, however, Riley filled the role of the dependable older brother, the one she could look up to and idolize. He'd never cared that he was the gifted son of the family and she the failed freak, defending her to the point of nearly destroying a room in the Steele mansion when Brenda called her 'unworthy of being a Steele' during the last family New Years dinner he had attended a few years back.

And then in the year 104, a terrible, divine disaster that originated in Hoenn had shaken up the world, and all of a sudden Riley had left their home in Twinleaf to head to Johto, for the sake of training in the Indigo Mountains and attending university there with plans not to return until he was finished. Because he strongly disliked electronic devices like phones and didn't have an email, contact with him had been pretty limited over those times, but he'd always remembered to send her gifts and messily scrawled cards on Yule and birthdays.

And now, finally, he was here. She was really glad that she had decided to come.

A few minutes after Grandfather's announcement, a young man with rumpled winter clothes smelling like the cold Sinnohan air was taking his place, smiling politely to greetings from family and the over-fifty pairs of eyes headed his way. His smile grew wider and warmer when his eyes landed on Dawn, and she smiled back, heart bursting with excitement.

Across the table, Brenda kept a fairly controlled face, but she squirmed in her seat slightly, a past memory shaming her. Riley just kept his smile and continued walking to his seat.

Grandfather didn't get up and hug him – it was the middle of the meal, and while Riley's presence would always be welcome to the head of the family, joining the table so late was very rude – but he did nod and clapped Riley on his shoulder, giving him his silent support.

"Good to see everyone," he said, as a maid quietly but quickly placed food and cutlery in front of him. He nodded in silent thanks after the last item – a napkin – was handed to him, and began to eat. "It's been a while."

"It has indeed," Johanna said with a warm smile that had an edge of '_too_ long, Riley Aaron Steele, and we will talk about this if it is the last thing I do'.

Even brave Riley shrank a little in front of Johanna's smile. "I'm here now?" he offered after swallowing his mouthful of potato.

The unsaid apology was enough to earn a pardon for now. Johanna's smile turned softer in forgiveness, and Riley's shoulders slumped a bit in relief.

Dawn grinned at the sight as the next course was brought in and set before everyone at the table. It had been years since Riley had lived at Twinleaf, but nothing had changed.

Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones at the table, and now that there was a pause in the conversation, others could join in. Before Dawn could muster up the nerve to speak at the table and risk drawing attention to herself, Uncle Damon struck first.

"I'm surprised you're here today, Riley," said Uncle Damon. "You missed what, the last two meetings?"

Near him, Brenda squirmed even more. At the last meeting Riley had attended, before the Incident, she had challenged Riley to a battle – sort of like how she had challenged Dawn – and lost badly. Really badly. As in, Riley's starter just demolishing her entire team without breaking a sweat badly.

Thinking back on it now, Dawn wasn't faultless in this. So proud of Riley, she'd excitedly talked of how awesome he was for getting such a flawless victory, and how Brenda hadn't stood a chance. Since he wasn't the type to brag or proudly talk about his own accomplishments, she'd taken up the unnecessary and unasked-for job of boosting his ego.

Unfortunately, her self-imposed duty had also done the job of stomping on Brenda's already bruised ego, leading the older girl to spit out angry, hateful words towards Dawn.

Looking at it fairly, they were both at fault – Dawn for being so inconsiderate of Brenda's feelings, and Brenda for lashing out so viciously at a kid who didn't really understand – but Riley had flipped into a personality so different from his usual self Dawn almost hadn't recognized him that day as the room they were in tore itself apart. He had calmed himself down a few moments later, and luckily no one was injured in the outburst.

But Brenda's words from a few years back – calling her a useless, Blind child that was using Riley to make a place for herself in the house – had stuck with her, and clearly her cousin was remembering them as well.

Riley, however, wasn't one to hold a grudge.

"I was busy," he answered after he finished chewing his Miltank steak. "University life is pretty tough."

"Always the hard worker," Uncle Maurice said, jolly face turned slightly red. Summer and Lawrence's dad was cheerful, but it was a secret well known in the family that he liked drinking. "And not just any university – Indigo Academy! Those pricks almost never accept students that didn't attend the -"

"Reading isn't too hard for you?" interrupted Uncle Damon with a smile. "Brenda was telling me the other day that she had so many readings, all with such tiny, cramped texts, and that reading and understanding the material is such an important part of post-secondary education."

The air set awkwardly at that. Johanna sent a disapproving look towards her brother that was ignored, and Dawn clenched her fists. Uncle Damon said it like he cared, but there was no mistaking the reasons behind his words, specifically targeting Riley's dyslexia. Brenda faked a cough, wanting her father to stop trying to make her look better by dragging him down.

Riley's smile was serene, however, as he replied pleasantly. "I manage fine."

It was polite, but was also firm, and like a solid wall didn't allow for further discussion.

Left without much to go further on, the older man did the smarter thing and decided to talk to someone else.

Uncle Maurice, however, didn't have much of an issue, or any feelings of malignance. "And you got a job as well, right? Working at the Battle Frontier?"

This time, Riley glanced towards Dawn briefly. "The Battle Tower," he specified. "I've been a part-time battler in the lower levels for a few months at the Johtoan front, but I recently transferred to the Sinnohan sector, and got promoted as well."

Dawn perked up, mood significantly brightened, as he continued. "So I'll be able to spend more time in Sinnoh."

"Fantastic!" Uncle Maurice boomed. "So, your school life is going alright, your workplace has no problems. That leaves only one part of your life unfulfilled." He leaned closer to Riley. "Any girls that caught your eye?"

Everyone in the immediate area who heard that 'subtle' comment looked at him, wondering what the answer was. Grandfather was speaking with Johanna, but he, too, seemed interested.

Riley paused before smiling and shrugging his shoulders casually. "No comment."

The adults tried to make some more talk with Riley, but he kept his answers short and vague. No one paid much attention to Dawn except Johanna, as usual, and she just went over the motions of eating whatever food was placed in front of her as fast as possible, not even caring what it tasted like. In this setting, it all just tasted like bland or salty mush in her mouth.

As soon as dinner was done, the 'adults' stayed to talk over wine or some other types of drinks while the 'kids' got out of there. Dawn ducked into a small room, hoping to avoid everyone and heal up her Lopunny before tracking down Riley to talk to him. Frejya had done great against Brenda's Pokémon, and everyone else would as well, but Dawn wasn't sure if her pride could take it if she ended up losing to her, especially now that Riley was here.

The thing that annoyed her the most was that Brenda didn't like her simply on principle. The only reason her older cousin didn't like her was because of their other cousin.

Before she could release Frejya, said other cousin followed her into the room she had ducked into, saving Dawn the trouble of having to track him down later on.

"Riley!" She beamed at him. She'd planned on chewing him out, or at least treating him a little frostily for missing the last two dinners and making her suffer without him, but it was just too great to see him again.

"Dawn!" He opened his arms, and Dawn took the invitation for a hug gladly by jumping at him and hanging from his neck. He smelt like cologne, sharp and clean. "_Oof_, you've _grown_."

"Taller or wider?" she asked, still hanging from his neck. The mock seriousness in her voice let him know that his answer would decide the status of his health in the very near future.

"Taller, of course," he said solemnly, and satisfied, Dawn let her grip on his neck go and dropped onto her feet, landing with a muffled thump. "But not by much," he added, and she tried to kick his shin.

"It's not my fault I'm short," she whined like she had done to him many times before.

Riley put his hand on her shoulder. "Do you still avoid drinking milk?" When she couldn't answer, he patted her. "Then it technically is your fault."

Dawn stuck out her tongue, unable to reply with words or logic. "Well, I'm a trainer now," she said, trying to change the subject.

He let it change. "I heard. You started what, this summer? And how many badges, six?"

"Five," Dawn corrected.

Riley whistled. "Impressive. My cousin the battling prodigy."

She flushed lightly at the praise, but then snapped herself out of the happy feeling when she remembered there was still three more to go – and all of them gym leaders known to be difficult. The thought of the challenge reminded her of all the mistakes she'd made so far.

"Tell me that when I'm champion," Dawn replied, looking down in embarrassment. If she was a prodigy by his standards, then she wouldn't be making mistakes. She was just trying to set her pace. She'd deserve to be called that when she really did something impressive.

Dawn didn't notice Riley's slight falling of face. He recovered his original expression quickly, far too quickly for her to notice the change.

"Tell me about your Pokémon," he said, copying her from earlier on and shifting the focus of conversation.

And just like that, all of Dawn's wariness and embarrassment and nerves washed away. She could talk about her Pokémon all day if she could, and he was someone she definitely wanted to talk to about her team.

For the next hour, she went over her team in the order that they had joined her, telling him all about them. When he heard their names – especially Frejya – he seemed quite proud of her. And of himself, for brainwashing Dawn at a young age to give Pokémon strong names and develop a love for myths.

"And I recently got two new Pokémon," Dawn said, once she had finished talking about all of her current members and Helios. "One's a Magmar, and her name's Bellona. She's . . ."

"Difficult?" Riley offered when she trailed off, and Dawn nodded, finding the word apt in describing the fire-type.

And from then on began her complaining. "I mean, she's been with us for like a week, and I guess that's a short amount of time, but – and don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm complaining or I regret catching her or anything like that, I swear – she just doesn't seem to _listen_! And I've tried _everything_!"

"Is it that she's having difficulty understanding what you're telling her, or that she's not listening?" Riley asked when she paused to take a breath of air. "It might be that she's still not used to thinking of battling in human terms."

Lucas had thought the same, when Bellona had descended upon Charlotte with a fire punch instead of the called flamethrower. That theory hadn't lasted long, though, because Charlotte, in a rare moment of audaciousness that surprised everyone watching, had taunted the Magmar. While none of them understood the exact words, it might have been something to do with insulting Bellona's intelligence, because for a while she executed every move Dawn called out perfectly without any mistake or much hesitation.

And then, once she had proven just how smart she was and capable of understanding human language and orders, Bellona went right back to doing what she chose to do instead of what Dawn called for. Somehow, it was even more frustrating, _knowing_ that Bellona understood and _chose_ not to listen.

"Independent thinking Pokémon is good, right?" Dawn asked without waiting for him to answer. "I mean, I don't want a completely obedient, reliant _puppet_ – a Pokémon that can make smart decisions on her own sounds great and I'm all for it. But I don't want to be the trainer who has Pokémon who ignores what she says, you know? I've never had any of my Pokémon do that and it's just – argh!"

She stopped talking when Riley started laughing softly. "It's not funny!" she cried, flushing. Here she was pouring her insecurities out to him and he was laughing at her! Way to make her feel like an overreacting kid.

"No, no, it's pretty funny," Riley replied, smiling widely. He was polite, but he was also honest. "I never thought I'd see you get so worked up over something like this – but I guess it makes sense that it would be over Pokémon training."

Dawn didn't really understand what this 'sense' he was making was, but she went along with it. He'd always seen more than most people.

"So," he continued on, expectantly. Like he didn't know what was coming. The nerve. "Two new Pokémon. One was the temperamental Magmar Bellona, and the other was . . . ?"

"You tell me."

Riley gave her a very innocent look. "Hmm?"

Dawn tapped one of her blue hairpins with her finger, the ones that had been sent to her this Yule along with the last Pokémon – the egg. "Don't pretend you don't know!"

He tried – and failed – to keep the pleased smile on his face from spreading wide enough to split his face in two. "You knew? Did Auntie tell you?"

"No, I figured it out on my own." And pretty easily too, at that. "Who else would anonymously send me gifts?" During the time Riley had stayed at their house, they hadn't really celebrated Yule because the anniversary of his parents' deaths was too close. He'd always felt sorry that Johanna and Dawn missed out because of him, even after they repeatedly told him that it was alright.

"Could have been a secret admirer you got." His face turned solemn. "For future reference, when you're older and mature enough to date, don't date a secret admirer, Dawn. You should date someone who has the courage to come up to your face and tell you just how much they admire you. If they can't be brave enough to do that, then they don't deserve your company. Also, secret admirers are creepers who are stalking you."

This conversation was going in a completely unnecessary direction, and Riley didn't seem to recognize it. Soon he was going to be telling her something completely ridiculous, like her only being allowed to date when she was older than thirty and married. "What?"

Realizing that he had gotten off track, he went back to offering potential candidates and trying to pretend it wasn't him. "I mean, it could also have been Barry, or Grandfather."

Dawn tilted her head, lowered her eyelids, and gave him a look of pure skepticism. Her mom used it well, and she was hoping to get at least half the effect. "Are you drunk?"

"Rude, but point. So I'm guessing the egg didn't hatch yet?"

"Not yet. But thank you for the gifts." The egg, the hairpins. She liked these types of hairpins, the set of three for her usual hairstyle.

"Mm." He seemed embarrassed about receiving gratitude for the 'anonymous' gifts he had sent, because he quickly changed the topic of the conversation back to the egg. "It should be hatching soon. Tell me when it does, alright?"

"How?" Dawn asked. "You don't have a cell phone, or email." For a young man, Riley practically lived like a hermit. Dawn remembered in her younger years, when Riley had lived in Twinleaf, of worrying that one day he would just melt away into nature and never come back.

As if to spit at her memory of his past self, Riley dug out a mobile device from his pocket. "Oh, I got a phone recently. Here, I'll give you my number."

Dawn gawked. "You got a phone? Who are you and what have you done to Riley?"

He blushed, and Dawn got a suspicion. "There _is_ a girl you're interested in!" she accused, remembering how he had evaded a question about the topic during dinner. "Who is it? Is she pretty? Do I know her? How did you meet? Are you even dating or is it just one sided?"

She might have found out, if the door hadn't opened at that moment.

"_There_ you are," Jonah said, like he had just finished a greatly exhausting chore. "We're both a little too old for hide and seek, you know."

"One's never too old to play games," Riley replied lazily, but the mirth was gone from his face. "Having an old mind makes one stagnate, don't you think?"

If it had been Brenda, the response might have been more . . . passion filled. As it was, Brenda's half-brother was more easy going about life and what he was faced with.

Jonah shrugged. "If you say so, cous. And speaking of games – Brenda wants to continue the battle from earlier on, but with a few changes to the rules, Dawn."

'And speaking of games'?

"What changes?" Dawn asked, not liking the foreshadowing his choice of words made her feel.

* * *

Since Brenda and Dawn had both lost one Pokémon each, they would continue on their battle as planned. Each would use two Pokémon.

However, instead of making it a singles battle, they would make it a tag battle – with Riley partnering with Dawn, and Jonah joining Brenda. Like their partners, Riley and Jonah would also use two Pokémon each.

"To make it fair," Jonah explained.

Fair? _Fair_?

Dawn's knowledge of her cousin's Pokémon were limited to outdated information from a few years ago, and Riley didn't even know what Pokémon she had.

Oh wait, no, he did. But not directly – just through second hand information from minutes ago. And her Pokémon didn't know about him, _or_ his team.

On the other hand, Brenda and Jonah probably knew all about each other's teams, and likely had experience battling with and against each other.

The disadvantages made the odds definitely not in their favour, but Dawn's pride wouldn't let her back down from this.

"This doesn't really seem fair," Lawrence pointed out from his sulking spot on the side, recognizing that the odds were pretty stacked for the battle. Summer, having won the fire-water-grass match that chose her as referee, was beaming in the most pleased manner at her spot on the side of the field's center.

"You're right," Riley agreed. "It isn't all that fair. Tell you what – I won't use my starter in the battle. That should even odds out a bit, shouldn't it? Wouldn't want Odin sweeping all your Pokémon again."

Across the field, she could see Brenda's nostrils flare like an angered dragon.

Dawn, in a force of habit ingrained into her after years of being friends with Barry, very nearly pinched Riley. She just barely managed to hold back the assault, and instead gritted out through her teeth, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Giving them a much-needed handicap," was the carefree reply. He said it loudly enough for the other side to hear. Brenda looked even angrier now, and even Jonah raised an eyebrow.

When in doubt of how to knock some sense into the heads of reckless boys, go for the tried and true way. Dawn reached over discreetly and pinched him in his side. He twitched slightly, but otherwise didn't show his pain. That was disappointing. Maybe she should have just punched him, even if it wasn't the most discreet thing to do.

"Can we start now?" Summer asked, eager to start her job as referee. "Release your Pokémon!"

Four on four, with two Pokémon from each person. Dawn chose Neptune, figuring that he'd be the best choice to start off with. Across the field, Brenda and Jonah sent out a Medicham and a Staraptor, respectively. Neptune eyed them, the field, and her before he put things together and realized that it was a tag battle. He glared down imperiously at the Pokémon across from him, trusting that his tag battle partner would be a Pokémon worthy enough.

And next to him, Riley's choice was revealed to be a Lucario, who didn't bother looking around and just stood there, relaxed and seemingly unthreatening.

"Begin!" Summer declared grandly, raising her arm high above her head before swinging it down in front of her chest.

Unfortunately, her command was ignored.

"You said you wouldn't use Odin," Jonah pointed out, looking peeved.

"That's Thor – Odin's son," Riley said smoothly. On the field, the Lucario waved at the mention of his name. "I've been meaning to give him some experience in working with Pokémon not on the team."

It didn't make Brenda happy to hear that Riley's starter wasn't being used. "This is just a training exercise to you, isn't it?" she accused. On the field, her Medicham, perhaps sensing its trainer's mood, shifted and frowned.

"The battle can begin _any_ moment now!" Summer called, looking impatient.

Riley stretched his lips. "Learning is a valuable thing that can be achieved in any situation to better yourself-"

"_Hello_?! I said-" Summer was beginning to get angry about being ignored, and opened her mouth to voice her displeasure.

This time, however, Summer wasn't ignored.

"Quick attack!" Jonah shouted, and the Staraptor dove forwards, crossing the distance instantly and crashing straight into the opponent standing directly opposite to him – Neptune. The reckless force made her Empoleon stumble, and when he had recovered his footing the flying-type was already headed up.

"Bubble beam!" Dawn shouted, angry at being caught off-guard. Neptune, sharing her sentiments, opened his beak to shoot out furious bubbles that soon filled the air above them. The Staraptor wove through evasive motions to avoid them, but the 'sky' was slowly being filled with bubbles that were more threatening than they appeared to be.

"Get rid of the bubbles with psycho cut!" Brenda said, delegating her Medicham to support duty. The Medicham clapped its slender gray hands together and closed its eyes. While it appeared to be in deep meditation – or asleep – the three glowing psychic blades that manifested in front of it said otherwise. Once they were formed, the three crescents shot towards the sky, each covering a wide distance and cutting through the majority of the bubbles.

Dawn scowled. "Brine! Aim for the bird!"

Bursts of salt water rained down upon the field as Neptune aimed upwards and spat, again and again, with narrowed eyes. The Staraptor, knowing it had the advantage, listened to Jonah and chose to hover above Neptune and Thor's heads, making it harder for Neptune to direct the brine attacks and letting gravity rain down the remnants of the brine attacks and burst bubbles onto their team. The flying-type had to be careful to avoid running into what few bubbles remained from the psycho cut assault – which were nearly transparent and harder to see or notice when one was preoccupied by salty water attacks from below – but otherwise it held the advantage.

Throughout it all – the battle's start, the water falling down around his head – Thor remained still, following Riley's lack of orders wonderfully.

"Dynamis, force palm the Lucario!" Brenda called, before she glared at Riley. "Take this seriously!" She seemed angrier at Riley for not fully participating in the battle than Dawn was. It felt like their roles were reversed.

"I am," he replied as the Medicham dashed towards the Lucario, palms glowing with orange energy. "Thor, force palm as well – neutralize the blows."

He could take care of Brenda for now. Dawn hoped. "Neptune, bubble beam!"

Now that Dynamis the Medicham was no longer on support, the sky once again filled with bubbles. This time, the bubble beam struck the Staraptor on its tail, making it wobble unsteadily and drop down a bit.

"Aquila, dodge!"

Neptune didn't need orders. He spat out an accurate brine attack, and the salt water drenched the Staraptor after smashing into its torso with the force of an angrily hurled medicine ball. Finding that its feathers were wet, the flying-type shrieked in fury and tried to shake it off midair to the best of its abilities.

"Confusion, Dynamis!"

"Thor, metal sound."

Dawn clapped her hands over her ears a little too late as the horrible screeching sound of metal shredding came from Riley's end of the field. The pink glow of psychic energy manifesting wavered as Dynamis cringed at the hideous hair-raising sound, but didn't flicker out. The Medicham's concentration wasn't broken so easily.

Once the sound cut off, Jonah gestured to his Staraptor. "Close combat the Empoleon!"

Neptune, in all of their hanging out with Barry's Pokémon, had never been hit with Starling's close combat himself, but both he and Dawn had seen how scary it was, and learned why Staraptor were called 'suicide birds' in battle. The sheer recklessness Jonah's Staraptor was showing as it dove through the air just backed the legitimacy of the nickname further.

There was no scrambling away from that bird missile. Both of them realized that at the same time, and Dawn shouted an order just as Neptune braced himself. "Ice beam!"

After Yule, all of her Pokémon used the TMs she'd bought them, but only Frejya and Medusa had mastered them fully. The rest were still works in progress, and Neptune, while having made significant progress, still couldn't shoot out a complete ice beam.

Dawn had her fingers crossed that in the desperation of a real battle against an unfamiliar opponent, some sort of Deus ex Machina would come into play in the magical, dramatic way to save the situation.

Sadly, it didn't. Neptune managed a bit of frost that was more like an icy wind before the gray-feathered bird swooped through the cold like it had no effect and began to execute a series of brutal, crushing blows with its powerful wings and legs – and once, even with its head. Each devastating blow made Neptune stumble. He tried blocking with his flippers, but even they shook and flinched with pain every time a blow landed.

Okay, forget the move that Neptune was having difficulty mastering, then. "Brine!"

Thanks to the reckless close combat, Aquila was too close to dodge.

The burst of salt water washed over Aquila again, and it cawed in pain when a lot of the brine landed on its face and into its eyes. The feeling of its eyes burning made the Staraptor back away so that it could clear its sight and soothe the pain.

"Bubble beam!"

Even before Dawn had shouted it, Neptune was already charging up the attack. Sure, when one came to attack, that was their own decision – but backing out safely wasn't an available option.

From all the brine attacks before, Neptune was running low on water, and getting tired, but bubbles were easy enough to make, and could still do a lot of damage. The transparent orbs flew through the air like a hoard of Zubat swarming after their prey.

Feathers laden with water, eyes burning, hardy bubbles smashing into its wings and bursting with the force of small explosions all added up to Aquila falling to the ground, exhausted. Before it could lift itself back up into the air, Neptune slammed its head back into the ground with a broad metal claw. The Staraptor didn't get back again after being clubbed by an iron-hard flipper in the back of its head.

"One down," Dawn said smugly – but not loud enough for Jonah to hear – while Neptune nodded in satisfaction.

With the lack of things to announce till now as a referee, Summer's eyes had glazed over from her spot at the side of the field, and she wasn't paying attention or calling things on the field.

"Staraptor is unable to battle! Three-four!" Lawrence shouted on his sister's behalf, before adding "With Team Riley and Dawn in the lead!"

Summer snapped out of whatever daydream she had been in at her job being stolen. "Hey, _I'm_ the ref!"

Lawrence wasn't going to let her walk over him. "Then do your job! Jonah, send out your next Pokémon!"

"_I_ was going to say that!" Summer tried to swat at Lawrence, but couldn't reach. She settled for shaking her fist at him, to which he replied by sticking out his tongue.

Jonah ignored them both. He reached for a Safari ball and released his last Pokémon into the field – a Quagsire.

"Detect!" Brenda shouted immediately to her Medicham. Dynamis, eyes glinting in an eerie, all-seeing white, sidestepped all of the light blows Thor had been sending its way as if in a trance.

At the same time, as the Quagsire looked around, naturally dopey looking face betraying none of its true emotions, Jonah gave the command. "Earthquake!"

The Quagsire, smiling complacently, lifted both its rubbery blue flippers and slammed them into the ground. The ground of the field began to shake, angrily lifting and sinking and rearranging like a monster was stomping its foot in a tantrum. Dynamis hopped and twisted in the right moments, the temporarily omniscient state of mind granted by the detect allowing it to evade its partner's attack.

Dawn, coming up with no way to stop the oncoming attack, found herself speechless. Would soaking the dirt around help with lessening the impact? Should she tell Neptune to try jumping in a parody of flight he wasn't biologically capable of? Could he remain conscious throughout the earthquake?

While the Quagsire was slamming its flippers down, however, Riley wasn't idle. He responded to Jonah's command by giving one of his own quickly before the Quagsire could carry it out. "Thor, aura sphere the major veins of energy."

Three small glowing orbs of concentrated aura manifested in attacking form materialized in Thor's paws.

When the earth began shaking, the Lucario fired his aura spheres. Not at the foe Quagsire or the temporarily immune Dynamis, but at the ground between Neptune's webbed feet and his paws.

Where they struck, the orbs burst and 'soaked' the places with light and the ground shook with less ferocity from those points. The earth making up the arena's floor rose less around Neptune and Thor, and while they were roughened up as the earth shook them up like a drier roughly tumbling clothes, they stayed on their feet.

The omniscient glow of light faded from the Medicham's eyes just after the last tremors faded. Neptune, shaken but not stunned, narrowed his eyes towards the Medicham.

"Bubble beam the Medicham!"

"Cetus, intercept!"

The first few bubbles splattered Dynamis, but the Quagsire jumped to block the rest with its moisture-loving body. It may have been a water-type, but it was an amphibian, and capable of maneuvering on land as well as in water. The bubbles, instead of causing damage by exploding and bursting, were popping softly and being absorbed by the rubbery skin.

"Water absorb," Riley explained kindly. "It looks like your Empoleon's water attacks are shut down."

But otherwise he gave no orders for Thor to help out in knocking the Quagsire unconscious.

Dawn decided to ignore him for now. If he wanted to play the role of a silent observer, alright. She could handle this. "Go close – pluck!"

Neptune's beak almost seemed to gleam cruelly as he darted forwards, faster than the Qugsire had been.

Jonah wasn't going to let Neptune just come up and attack his Pokémon so easily, though. "Mud shot!"

The Quagsire spat out a spray of mud, thick enough to hurt when hit at a high velocity, but thin enough to be easily thrown out and about.

And, thick enough to cover one's eyes when it splattered all over one's face. Specifically, an Empoleon's face. Neptune, suddenly with his vision 'shut down' as well, stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face.

"Still aqua jet into pluck!" she shouted, hoping that her message would get through. It was a confusing call and Dawn knew it, but at the same time she had faith that her starter would be able to decipher it.

Neptune didn't let her down. Instead of shooting forwards after wrapping his body in water, he quickly wrapped his entire body with water – and focused most of it towards his face so he could wash out the mud from his eyes.

"Mud bomb!"

"Brick break!" Brenda added as well. Since Thor wasn't going to do anything without Riley giving an order, and Riley didn't seem like he was going to open his mouth anytime soon, she decided to gang up and target Dawn's Pokémon with her brother.

Two against one?

"Bubble beam!"

The huge glob of mud arced through the air. Neptune sidestepped it, letting it fall to the ground without touching one steel-lined feather on his body.

Or so he thought, until the bomb exploded on contact, sending dirt and mud shrapnel flying everywhere, splattering him and making him fall over. A crater the size of a kitchen sink was left behind at ground zero.

Dynamis rushed forth, eager to take advantage of her fallen enemy.

"Pluck at the word!" Dawn managed to shout just before the Medicham leapt upon her Empoleon. That word had to come sooner than what both of them had in mind. "Now!"

The gray arm came down, carrying far more force than what its thinness suggested. It would have hit Neptune across the back of his neck if he hadn't surged forwards to tear with his beak. Dynamis shifted, not letting Neptune's beak grab onto her shoulder, but the twist to avoid most of the pluck attack weakened the brick break's blow.

Still, it had done its damage. Neptune's body began glowing in a blue light, and both Jonah and Brenda picked up on his exhaustion with eyes like a predator's.

Understandably, they reacted accordingly. And so did Dawn – because Neptune was tired, but he was never one to go down without a fight.

"Brine!"

"Mud bomb, support!"

"Confusion!"

A burst of psychic energy struck Neptune in the face, and he gargled slightly as the brine that had been washing up recoiled inside him. The mud bomb in the air was falling at a speed that was possible to dodge.

"Hit the Medicham!"

But if he moved out of the mud bomb's range, as seen from the last explosion, he wouldn't be able to take down Brenda's Medicham.

Neptune understood what she was asking of him, and steeled himself. Before the second mud bomb struck him, he managed to reverse the backlash and blasted Dynamis with the settled brine. The Medicham made some muffled drowning sounds as the force of the brine threw it back. Its head fell back limp on the ground just as Neptune, unable to avoid or withstand the impact of the mud bomb falling directly on his head, fainted.

* * *

After some consideration, Dawn sent out Medusa. Sekhmet was a viable option, but she decided against sending in the Luxray after looking at the still-fighting Quagsire and the muddy field left behind.

Her choice proved to be a good one, because the grass-type crushed the Quagsire and the Gardevoir Brenda sent out. Medusa, used to fighting a psychic that liked to teleport around, didn't have any difficulty with filling the field with poison powder. As a grass-type, she was unaffected by spores, and Lucario scoffed at poisons thanks to their steel half. Trapped in a poisonous, boggy environment that caught its ankles at the worst of times, the Gardevoir had been no match for a merciless Medusa whipping out her vine arms and flinging it to the ground over and over again.

In fact, she seemed surprised that the Gardevoir couldn't take as many hits as Helios.

"Nicely done, Dawn," said Riley, who technically was the best off in battle, having lost none of his Pokémon. His Lucario, who had been watching from the side like he was a member of the audience with super-VIP membership seats, nodded before being returned. "I knew you had it in you."

Dawn considered things. Maybe he had changed – he seemed a little more relaxed than a few years ago, and certainly a little lazier.

Brenda looked steamed – at both losing to Dawn in what was arguably a two-vs-one situation, and at losing to Riley again without taking out even one of his Pokémon for the second time.

Jonah waved it off, and after shaking their hands with the attitude of someone who followed formal procedures for the sake of irony, dragged his sister off to heal their Pokémon.

Dawn went off to the side and dug in her bag for healing items. She didn't want to be in the same room as Jonah and Brenda so soon after beating them. With the high, uplifting feeling making her buzz right now, she wasn't sure if she could keep herself from bragging to them.

Before she pulled out the revive shard, however, Riley was extending his hand to her, palm up.

"Let me heal him," he said. "I'd like to get to know your starter as well, and say thank you."

"Ooh, I want to see as well!" Summer piped in. Lawrence had left after the battle finished, searching for something to eat, but she had stayed.

And her reason for doing so became clear as she continued speaking. "Dawn, your Empoleon was so cute!"

"He's not cute, he's awesome," Dawn corrected, tone not as sharp as it could have been. Her mood had improved dramatically, seeing Riley again and winning in what she would privately consider a two-vs-one situation.

But she did have to object to Summer's words. Neptune would probably find it offensive, being called cute.

"You can be cute and awesome at the same time," Summer said, displaying a surprising logic that left Dawn stunned and at loss for a reply. Summer was right, which was the thing that irritated her.

"That's true," Riley agreed, pulling out some medicine from a cabinet next to the arena, near the referee's spot. "The two aren't mutually exclusive by any means."

Dawn gave him a look. '_Whose side are you on?_'

He winked as he walked back, medicine kit in hand. '_My side.'_

Neptune, brought back to full health a few moments later, began to clean himself from the remnants of the mud that had taken him out using little spurts of water. He barely gave Riley and Summer a passing glance even after Riley had been the one to administer the revive and potion to him, making Riley comment out loud that he was definitely living up to what his species were known for. Judging from his reaction – treating Riley's words like they were blatantly obvious – made Dawn suspect that her starter took them as a compliment instead of the jab her cousin originally intended it to be.

"You might be glad to know that we won the battle," she said when Riley shook his head after coming to the same conclusion as her. "Medusa wrung out that Quagsire, and the Gardevoir that came out afterwards."

He nodded like he had expected nothing less from his teammate, and dipped his head to nudge at his chest with what could only be called kingly elegance.

His majestic preening and cleaning came to an end, however, when Summer called him 'cute' to his face. He looked at her, clearly indignant like she had just insulted him.

"No," Dawn told him simply but firmly when he began to charge up a bubble beam.

Neptune glowered at Summer – who thought that look was cute on him as well – before he huffed.

Compared to her, Riley, who gave off a naturally confident and relaxed air, was better received by her starter. Neptune eyed him a bit, but after Riley introduced himself as Dawn's cousin – and Dawn added that he was like Barry, but calmer and smarter – he shrugged and didn't take on an aggressive attitude towards him.

"Thanks, Neptune," Dawn told him after he was done cleaning himself. "Take a good rest, alright?" Medicine was fine and miraculous and all, but Neptune still looked a little tired.

He nodded, and tapped the button of the ball that she held up with his beak.

"So cute," Summer muttered as he disintegrated into red energy. "Dawn! Your Pokémon are so cute! You have that Buneary evolution-"

"Lopunny," Dawn corrected.

"Right, that. And a Piplup evolution, and an Eevee . . . What other cute mons do you have?"

"A Tangrowth, a Golbat and a Luxray," Dawn replied. "They're _adorable_, and even stronger than they are cute."

Summer clucked her tongue in disapproval. "Strength isn't everything," she said in a preaching manner.

She didn't want to hear that from the person whose judging standards for Pokémon was based on their cuteness, and told Summer so.

But her cousin shook her head. "It's different."

"How?" both Riley and Dawn asked simultaneously, the former curious, the latter incredulous.

"It just is," Summer insisted, before she left.

Dawn sighed and sat down on one of the seats. Riley sat down next to her. For a moment it was quiet, with just the two of them. The clock on the far wall told her it would still be a few more hours until the countdown to the last seconds of the year.

But it was the last hours in the year – and what a year it had been.

"I wish," he said in a voice as filled in reflection as hers would have been had she spoken. "That I could have returned to Sinnoh earlier."

Dawn turned her head to look at him. He didn't meet her eyes, instead choosing to stare ahead at nothing in particular with a small, wistful smile. He looked almost frail and regretful.

"Or not left at all," he continued on. Dawn grew slightly worried. Had he suffered, during his time in Indigo? Had something bad happened to him? "Just . . . stayed in Sinnoh, in Twinleaf. Gone to a local university, like somewhere in Hearthome or Jubilife so I could come home and walk you to school or places and make sure you didn't get lost on the way. Talk with Aunt Jo about what's going on in the world, teach you more about Pokémon, bake muffins and eat them all before they even cooled down, bribe my Pokémon to try their hand at coordinating with poffins and then laugh at their failures, tell you stories about myths and legends . . . ."

He was listing all the things they used to do. The worry growing in her grew stronger.

"What happened?" Dawn asked softly. She'd seen him make mistakes and be less than perfect, but this was only the second time – third, if she counted the incident a few years back – that she'd seen him like this. Vulnerable. Tired. Fragile.

Riley looked at her then, and smiled reassuringly. "Nothing too bad," he said in what she hoped was honesty. "Some good things, some new experiences, with time always flowing on. I just missed home and family a lot. And couldn't return until I had everything under control."

Guilt stabbed her in her heart. The home and family he meant here wasn't this mansion, or all the Steeles. He meant their house in Jubilife, and Johanna and Dawn.

And she'd just been too excited, to waste his time by talking about herself and her team only instead of listening to him.

He raised the hand away from her, and Dawn watched as his entire hand became encased in steady, translucent blue light.

"Aura?" Dawn asked. When he nodded, she cranked her brain for how to respond appropriately.

She came up with and discarded several choices before she impulsively went with "Cool."

Dawn regretted it almost immediately, but it had the effect of snapping Riley out of his glassy-eyed state. He snickered, and the light faded away, leaving just a normal hand.

Before he could tease her for her choice of words, Dawn hurried to change the topic. "Now that you've seen us battle," she said firmly. "What do you think?"

"Hmm."

Surprisingly, Riley took this question seriously. He wasn't indulging her and letting her change the subject, but actually thinking about it.

"I'd have to see you battle more to get a clearer look at things," he said slowly, running the memory of the battle through his head. "But from what I've seen and what you've told me about your Pokémon . . . I'd say you have a very embracing, or conquering way of battling."

Dawn thought of Medusa and how she'd practically wrangled Brenda's Gardevoir. But Neptune didn't fight that way at all. "Huh?"

"Of course, that's only my initial impression, and I would absolutely hate to make my decisions based solely off of my first glance at things. I'd like to get at least six months of data before I can give a clear stance on what I think."

". . . wait." Was he really implying what she thought he was implying?

"Although having more data would definitely add to accuracy. Half a year is only the minimum. Let's think long-term, and not make immediate plans to name a specific number just yet. That would be rash."

"Are you coming back home?" she cut him off, too excited to let him continue his roundabout way of talking.

"After a few months," he said. "Grandfather tells me that I have to prepare for and go through some trials before I become named the next Head of the Steele Family." He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "And that's not including all the other things, like university work and the Battle Frontier."

It was a little disappointing that he wouldn't immediately come back home, but it was still a promise, and one that made her smile widely.

Then she frowned. "Wait, why not just ask Uncle Palmer to put your position on hold or something? Is it not allowed, even for special circumstances? Do you want me to ask him for you?"

"Ah, no, it's not that," Riley said, looking flustered. "I like working at the Battle Tower, and I can't put it on hold at the moment."

Dawn looked at his flushing face, at his odd choice, and his previous reactions – and the pieces all fell together.

"The girl you like works at the Battle Frontier!"

She should have probably felt a little betrayed about this. Why, she didn't know – it wasn't like he only returned to Sinnoh because of the mystery Battle Frontier girl. Maybe because she didn't know the girl's identity and couldn't tease him about her.

Riley groaned. Dawn changed her mind about being unable to tease him due to not knowing the girl's identity.

"How did you meet her? Did she move from Indigo to Sinnoh? If you approach her don't be creepy and be all like 'I crossed oceans and lands for you'-"

He lightly clapped his hand around her mouth. "You've grown more similar to Barry while I was gone, I see," he said, having recovered from his fumble.

"Hey!" she shouted. Or tried to, anyways. It came out muffled around the hand.

"So I'm a little busy," he continued on smoothly. "But I'll be back. I think you might have won your sixth badge already by the time I get back, but who knows. Afterwards, I'd like to train with you. See if we can't learn new tricks from each other. Sound good?"

"Mm!"

"Right, sorry." He removed the hand.

"Yeah," Dawn said once she had her clarity of words back. "Sounds good."

Riley smiled, and patted her head, careful not to mess up her hair. "I look forward to battling with you at the Frontier. Judging from today's performance, I think we could make for a fearsome duo."

"You mean with you watching and me doing most of the work?"

He flicked her lightly with a finger on her forehead. "We'll talk about equal shares of work after you get on my level."

Dawn gaped at the arrogance, well-deserved as it was. He was still a more experienced trainer, and his Pokémon were strong.

But still. To say that with his own mouth.

"You're a prick," she mock-wailed. "What did Indigo do to my nice, humble cousin?"

Riley shook with laughter, and after two more seconds Dawn's mock-sobbing turned into genuine giggles.

The end of the year A. S. 107 was a good one. And she wished that 108 would prove to be similar.

* * *

**Teams**

**Dawn**

_On Hand:_ Sekhmet (Luxray), Faith (Eevee), Frejya (Lopunny), Neptune (Empoleon), Themis (Golbat), Medusa (Tangrowth)

Home: Egg, Bellona (Magmar)

**Barry**

_On Hand_: Champ (Torterra), Starling (Staraptor), Marcus (Heracross), Allen (Floatzel), Billie Jean (Mr. Mime), Bruce (Hitmonlee)

_Home:_ (Murkrow), (Chatot), Camarero (Rapidash), Egg

**Lucas**

_On Hand:_ Charlotte (Monferno), Arthur (Kadabra), Miranda (Clefairy), Cupid (Togetic), Sherlock (Shieldon), Alan (Porygon)

_Home/Lab:_ Brandon (Bibarel)

* * *

**AN**: Oh hey look at that it's nearly been a year since I last updated.

(ducks to avoid shots)

I'm sorry for suddenly up and leaving without a word. A lot of things happened at the same time, and I couldn't make it. The longer explanation's on my profile. I promise that the next update won't take so long.

If my original plans went through, then this chapter would have been uploaded on New Years of 2016. I actually considered just waiting until 2017 to upload this, but that was too far.

So, part two of Titanium has started (readers: hold up, part two?) and Riley's here! I think some people actually realized I dropped some hints about him throughout the story, and I'm super happy he's finally out.

Next chapter, we see how the new year starts for Dawn. If you want a longer AN for the chapter, please go to my newly-made Tumblr, **Huinari**, and be faced with an AN that's really a Riley-discussion post and far longer than anyone wanted.

Happy Sun and Moon release!


End file.
